Novia Aterradora, A Vengeful Spirit For October Gaming

My circle of players is planning on doing some horror-themed stories (probably two sessions each) in October.  I could use some pre-existing villain like Corpsefire as the centerpiece for my run but a couple of the people involved have already "met" them in the past so I'd rather do someone new.  Ought to able to make this lovely lady pretty scary and hand them some moral quandaries as well by having her own pre-death behavior not much better than her revenge targets.  Also taking the opportunity to settle some dangling plot threads with organized crime figures in my last campaign, who may or may not wind up horribly dead at the end of things.    

La Novia Aterradora

Maria Torres was a hard woman during her life, de facto head of one of California's major organized crime families after her father was killed and her grandfather reduced to a figurehead by age and infirmity.  Ruthless, thoroughly amoral and quick to punish any disrespect, her fearsome reputation kept her solidly in power but earned her many enemies in the criminal underworld.  A coalition of those foes chose to strike at her on her 30th birthday, which was also to be her wedding day.  Firebombs went off just after she and her spouse swore their vows, and their honeymoon was spent in the morgue.

That should have been the end of it, but Maria was a hard woman in death as well.  Refusing to go to Hell without a proper retinue, she was granted a chance to go collect the souls of her killers.  Risen into awful unlife, la Novia Aterradora roams the mortal world in search of her rightful prey.  Can your heroes stop her?  Considering who her killers were, do they even want to? 

Description: A spectral vision of a skeleton dressed in the rags and tatters of a scorched bridal gown.  She glides along soundlessly, hair and dress trailing wisps of smoke.  When using her powers she's often accompanied by unnatural shadows populated with horrifying phantoms, or wreathed in sulfurous yellow flame when thoroughly enraged.  On the rare occasions she does speak, her voice is cold and full of menace, echoing as though it comes from beyond the grave.   

Gender: Female     Age: Deceased     Height: 5'5"     Eyes: Burning Red

Hair: Ash Grey, Scraggly & Smoldering     Skin: None     Build: Skeletal Phantasm

Approach: Disruptive                         Archetype: Guerrilla

Health:  40 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d10, Infernal d10, Intangibility d8, Flight d8

Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Alertness d8, Stealth d8, Vengeful Spirit d8

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 -d6

Abilities:

Fleeting Phantasm (R) Defend against an Attack by rolling your single status die.  Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.

Spirit of Vengeance (I) At the start of your turn, gain a bonus with a value equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.

Vision of Horror (A) Attack using Illusions.  Use your Max die.  A target dealt damage this way Attacks an ally of your choice by rolling their single largest power die.

Wreathed In Hellfire (A) Hinder using Infernal.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).

Master of the Unfathomable (I) If you are in a situation involving otherworldly forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of unknowable entities beyond our reality.

Tactics

La Novia Aterradora is a vengeful spirit, only half-real and shrouded in a web of illusion at all times.  In combat she relies on Vision of Horror to terrorize foes and turn them against their allies while intervening in Attacks on herself and her allies with Fleeting Phantasm.  She prefers to spread damage around multiple foes rather than concentrating on finishing one at a time, taunting them into Attacking her to maximize the benefits of Spirit of Vengeance.  When hard-pressed she'll call on the pact that animates her, becoming Wreathed In Hellfire to paralyze foes with fear while restoring her own vigor.

She rarely manifests her upgrade or mastery unless directly confronting someone directly involved in her death (of whom few will survive even a single encounter) or when being called upon to fulfill some arcane requirement of her pact.

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Scofflaw, Rogue COPP Cyborg Plus His Law Incorporated Foes

Continuing Nineties Week, another fairly common theme was a dystopian outlook on the near future (amusingly, often set around 2025), particularly when it came to law enforcement, capitalism, and civil liberties.  This showed up in both good books and bad, but I'm still devoting a post to it since the bad examples were often painfully awkward in hindsight, rivaling even PSA comics in that regard.  Also taking the opportunity to work in some silly acronyms, which weren't exclusive to Nineties comics by any means but sure did show up in some of them.

Starting off with a superhero, followed by their counterparts in both full villain and lieutenant forms. 

Name: Scofflaw

Origin: The vigilante known only as Scofflaw was one on the first subjects of the Law Incorporated Advanced Research (LIAR) Cybernetically Optimized Police Patroller (COPP) program.  He's also its worst failure to date - at least from the corporation's point of view.  Early versions of the cyborg brain implants had far too few behavioral restraints and inadequate ethical suppression codes, as well as excessive self-repair and maintenance databases.  The latter feature was intended to allow the  cyborgs to remain operational even when damaged.  This is something that Scofflaw has taken advantage of since his faulty loyalty programming lead him to break with his creators and flee into the Unlicensed Underground with millions of dollars worth of corporate cyberware grafted to his body.

Since going rogue, Scofflaw has played the role of a vigilante "superhero" and opposed the interests of Law Incorporated on numerous occasions, as well as fighting against both mundane and empowered unauthorized criminals.  He's too secretive and violent to be truly well-liked by the law-abiding civilians he claims to protect, and his fellow undesirable outcasts are too paranoid about him being a corporate plant of some kind to fully trust him.  Still, Scofflaw soldiers on, fighting for an ideal of justice few believe in any more.

Scofflaw has demonstrated an unmatched talent for operating multiple Automanus "rocket fist" drones simultaneously, something that's made recovering him for study a high priority for LIAR.  They're unlikely to duplicate his abilities since they stem from his free will rather than some quirk in his prototype software.  While he's capable of repairing damaged drones with time and effort, that doesn't stop him from scavenging them from defeated COPP Officers whenever possible, and his supply of "spares" are mostly trophies of previous victories.    

Description: A tall African-American man with extensive cybernetic augmentations and cranial scarring typical of invasive brain surgery.  All four of his limbs are obviously mechanical, his torso has spinal reinforcements and dermal plating over his vitals, and his left eye has been replaced with a trio of advanced sensor lenses.  His hands are his most distinctive feature - each has twin thumbs with three fingers between them, and more disturbingly he carries up to a dozen "spares" hanging from his belt and crossed bandoliers covered in equipment pouches.  The hands incorporate thrusters that let them operate independently as flying or scuttling drones, and can swap out fingers for specialized functions with a little work.  He generally wears an unmarked uniform blue singlet under civilian street clothes that do very little to conceal his modifications.  Almost always has a hat to conceal his scars, although it rarely lasts long in a fight.

Gender: Male     Age: Early Twenties     Height: 6'0"     Eyes: Brown

Hair: Shaved, Surgical Scars     Skin: Umber, Silver Prostheses     Build: Cyborg

Background: Tragic     Power Source: Unknown     Archetype: Robot/Cyborg

Personality: Stoic     Health (G/Y/R):  32/24/11

Powers: Awareness d10, Part Detachment d10, Robotics d10, Strength d8, Gadgets d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Technology d10, Cyborg Brain d8, Imposing d8, Investigation d8, Criminal Underworld Info d6

Status: Green (32-25) - d6 / Yellow (24-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d10

Abilities:

Green

Overclock Cyberprocessors (A) Boost yourself using Awareness.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.

Principle of Dependence (A) Overcome a challenge in a situation that your cyberware was made for.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How was your cyberware damaged or lost?  Major twist: How is your dependence preventing you from functioning as a hero?  RP: You are reliant on your extensive cybernetic prostheses and cannot function normally without them. 

Principle of the Gearhead (A) Overcome a technological challenge.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What device just shorted out?  Major twist: What machine just went terribly off the rails?  RP: You always know the general state of repair and function of an item of technology, regardless of complexity or origin.

Rocket Punch Flurry (A) Attack using Part Detachment with a bonus equal to the number of bonuses you currently have.

Yellow

Adrenal Stimulants (I) Reduce the amount of physical damage dealt to you by 1/2/3 while you are in the Green/Yellow/Red zone.

Dual Rocket Punch (A) Attack using Part Detachment.  Hit one target with your Min die, another target with your Mid die, and Boost with your Max die.

Helping Hands (A) Boost all nearby allies using Robotics.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself with your Min die.

Red

Flying Fists (R) When you would be dealt damage, roll your single Part Detachment die to Defend against that damage.  Attack a nearby target other than the source of that damage using the same roll.

Hyperclocked Cyberprocessors (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die.

Improvised Explosives (A) Attack multiple targets using Robotics.  Use your Max + Min dice.  If you roll doubles, either take a minor twist or damage equal to your Mid die.

Out

Dead Man's Hand (A) Defend an ally by rolling your single Close Combat die.

Tactics

In Green, open by establishing a lasting bonus with Overclock Cyberprocessors, re-establishing it whenever its removed and possibly repeating for redundancy and better effect despite the exclusivity.  Aim to accumulate bonuses (including exclusive ones) for use with Rocket Punch Flurry, which can start hitting very hard indeed when he's got enough of them piled up.  His Principles are also quite easy to apply, at least while his cyberware is still working properly.

In Yellow, Scofflaw gains solid physical damage resistance from Adrenal Stimulants, which scales up in Red.  Helping Hands lest him deploy spare Automanus drones to assist multiple allies at the cost of a small penalty to himself, a very strong team support trick.  Dual Rocket Punch is his go-to maneuver unless he needs maximum single-target damage, letting him deal with two softer targets at once while stacking up strong bonuses on himself or granting them to allies.

Once he reaches Red status, Flying Fists gives him a powerful defensive reaction that comes with a big offensive (ahem) punch as well, and can be a good place to throw bonuses to stay in the fight longer.  Improvised Explosives is a very strong multi-target sweeper, and if he does roll doubles he can look at his Mid die and decide whether to take a twist or use his reaction to prevent the self-damage while bashing someone with an extra d10.  Hyperclocked Cyberprocessors increases his action efficiency quite a lot, and may be most useful for extra Mid die Boost actions to fuel his other abilities.  With a big stack of bonuses a humble little Green Rocket Punch Flurry can even outperform the notorious Charged-Up Blast Red ability, and finishing a fight with a dozen cyber-fists roaring in at once is a pretty stylish move.

His Out Dead Man's Hand lets him continue to protect allies with whatever damaged drones are still active after he's gone offline himself.

Trivia

Whatever creator came up with this guy and the whole COPP thing really, really liked drawing robot hands zipping around.  Better than drawing feet, I guess.

The IRL inspiration for the double-thumb look comes straight from ~25 year old miniatures game called Ronin from the long defunct Cel Entertainment.  Their distinctive mecha "power fists" (both light and heavy) were just plain nifty.  I always wished they were easier to buy in bulk for conversions on 28mm scale figures - all the more so because they could be used as either right or left hands as desired thanks to the inhuman digit layout. 

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COPP Officer

A Cybernetically Optimized Police Patroller Officer is the product of Law Incorporated's Advanced Research division (aka LIAR), a multinational firm responsible for security in [your dystopian campaign city] after the government privatized law enforcement.  Baseline humans proved to be unsatisfactory when it came to dealing with empowered vigilantes and unauthorized crime, as well as being prone to making decisions based on personal interests and ethical considerations.  The COPP program addressed these shortcomings by physically augmenting its subjects while installing behavioral controls that ensured compliance with corporate policy.  Minor reductions in personal initiative have been noted as an unfortunate side effect of the process, but this is more than compensated by adaptive reaction hierarchies for every conceivable situation a patrol cyborg might encounter.  Their pre-programmed priorities are ranked as follows:

1. Prevent property damage to Law Incorporated holdings.
2. Prevent property damage to client holdings as long as their premiums are paid up.
3. Apprehend wanted criminals, including so-called "hero" vigilantes and unlicensed superbeings, terminating non-compliant targets when necessary.
4. Uphold the law.
5. Protect public property and civilians.

COPP prostheses are largely standardized, and are noteworthy for the use of versatile "Automanus" technology, detachable robotic hands capable of flight and independent operations as support drones in even the densest urban areas.  These have largely replaced more conventional firearms in the police arsenal after cost benefit analysis showed they cause far less collateral damage than simple projectile or energy weaponry.  Malefactors have come to fear the titanium hands of the Law Incorporated.  Better still, consumers have purchased millions of COPP action figures with realistic Rocket Punch play features, improving divisional profit margins in the process.

Description: A heavily-modified cyborg, with all four limbs and both eyes replaced by obviously artificial prostheses and extensive dermal plating and reinforcements on their torso and heads.  He has the same double-thumbed hand design as Scofflaw, although he carries only two spares on on a utility belt, one slung on each hip.  Never seen outside of official uniform, a black singlet with a five-pointed silver lawman's star over the heart and a custom helmet with integral spotlights.

Gender: Varies     Age: Twenties     Height: Varies, 6' or more     Eyes: Variable

Hair: None, Silver Dermal Plating     Skin: Variable, Silver Prostheses     Build: Cyborg

Approach: Adaptive                         Archetype: Guerilla

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Part Detachment d10, Robotics d8, Strength d8, Gadgets d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Conviction d8, COPP Programming d8, Self-Discipline d8

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 - d6

Abilities:

Adaptive Programming (A) Lower two of your powers by one die size each.  Increase one of your other powers to d12.  Then take a basic action using that power.

Crowd Control Tactics (A) Attack multiple close targets using Close Combat.  Hinder each target using your Min die.

Flying Cestus (R) Defend against an Attack by rolling your single status die.  Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.

Gauntlet Drone (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Robotics die.  Boost yourself using the same result.

Rocket Punch (A) Boost using Part Detachment.  Use your Max die.  Attack using your Mid die.  Defend using your Min die.

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 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

COPP Officers follow programmed protocols with little innovation or free will, which makes them fairly predictable despite their versatile cyberware.  Against multiple foes they'll try to move in and use Crowd Control Tactics.  If unable to do so effectively or when facing single targets, they rely on repeated Rocket Punch strikes, funneling the bonuses generated into their next move as fast as they come in.  When Attacked they use Flying Cestus until they've reached about half their maximum Health.  At that point they'll pause to use Adaptive Programming to lower Strength and Gadgets and raise Robotics to d12, then begin reacting to Attacks with Gauntlet Drone instead.  If they need to take an Overcome action they'll always try to use Adaptive Programming to maximize a suitable power to d12, lowering two powers other than Part Detachment.

They rarely have upgrades or masteries, which reflect experimental (and expensive) hardware and software upgrades.  If they have received the refit they'll be significantly tougher, better at delivering damage, and will almost never need to roll to succeed on an Overcome.

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COPP Trooper d8 lieutenant

Description: Heavily-converted cyborg, nearly identical to the COPP Officer villain version but with more limited programming and firmware and lacking the "spare" hands since they can't operate the extra drones.  Troopers are most often deployed for major operations where numbers are needed but purely organic personnel are unsuitable, such as sweeping areas of undesirables, large-scale manhunts and direct assaults on illegally operated "secret bases" used by superhuman vigilantes.   

Adaptable: Gain a +2 bonus when taking Overcome actions.  If you succeed with an 8+ increase your die size by one (max d8).

Automanus Technology: When you take an Attack action while your die size is d6 or higher, you may also Defend yourself using the same die roll.  If you do so, use a die one size smaller than your current die size for the action.

Blog Content Index

Savager, An Edgy Nineties Villain

Continuing Nineties Week here on the blog, we have a predictably edgy supervillain that would have been very popular with many of the less consistent artists of the era. 

Savager

Drew Fields was a petty criminal and drug addict until he sampled the latest batch of Supe and wound up with an incredible morphic physique and some serious mental issues.  Quickly re-inventing himself as the mercenary supervillain Savager, he's garnered a reputation as sadistic but effective muscle willing to do anything at all for money - including performing in a number of extremely unpleasant underground pornographic films under the moniker Mister Phantastic.  His new form requires much larger doses of his drugs of choice to reach the highs he's after, and most of his new-found income goes toward feeding his addictions.

Meta-textually, Savager was the creation of an artist whose inability to stick to character models was as well-known as his lousy anatomical drawing skills.  A villain whose look changed from panel to panel and never had to look quite human was the perfect solution to these inadequacies.  Making Savager an edgy sadomasochisic porn star that was also an obvious jab at a competitor's hallmark character ensured him a degree of popularity with some readers.  Following the collapse of the Speculator Boom, Savager's creator spent the next few years earning a marginal living self-publishing the adults-only "Savager XXX" and "Lady Savager Gone Wild" books and drawing commissioned art of his most successful characters ever.  He eventually left the industry altogether, moving on to CPA work after being bankrupted by a lawsuit over the "Mister Phantastic" thing.

Description: Never looks quite the same from moment to the next, and even when passing for a normal human his anatomy looks weirdly off, with skewed proportions and unnatural posing.  In combat he's a nightmare of bony spurs, flashing claws and snapping jaws in places there shouldn't be jaws.  His arms lengthen and divide into squirming tentacles while his size fluctuates from merely large up to a hulking brute the size of a panel truck.  His voice is the only real constant, speaking in a surprisingly high-pitched tenor with a tendency to giggle uncontrollably when hurting people.

Gender: Male     Age: Twenty-Something     Height: Variable, base 6'4"     Eyes: Variable

Hair: Variable        Skin: Variable, base Caucasian     Build: Wildly Variable

Approach: Bully                         Archetype: Guerilla

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Shapeshifting d10, Elasticity d8, Size-Changing d8

Qualities: Acrobatics d8, Alertness d8, Bloodthirsty Maniac d8

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 - d6

Abilities:

Constrictor Coils (A) Attack one target using Bloodthirsty Maniac.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Defend against all Attacks made by anyone but that target with your Mid die until the start of your next turn.  All damage prevented this way is dealt to the target of this Attack.

Double Trouble (A) Attack two nearby targets using Shapeshifting.  Use your Max die on the first target and your Mid + Min dice on the second.  If either target Defends against the Attack, that Defend works against both Attacks.

Mutable Physiology (I) Reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.

Three-Way Blitz (A) Attack using Bloodthirsty Maniac.  Use your Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second target, and your Min die against a third target.  If you Attack three targets the damage is irreducible.

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 Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome when your payment is at stake.

Tactics

Savager's fighting technique relies on rapidly changing size and shape while sprouting natural weaponry and defenses in the form of spurs, fangs, claws, scales and armored plates.  Mutable Physiology makes him very durable and he has no qualms about engaging multiple foes at once.  Against mobs Three-Way Blitz lets him push damage past even the best defenses.  Double Trouble delivers hard hits to two targets at once.  Constrictor Coils is his preferred move against single foes, letting him deal with one enemy while using their allies' efforts against them.

His upgrade ramps up his damage output even further, while his mastery represents an unusually large payout for his murderous services.

Blog Content Index

The Three Masters, They've Come From 69AD To Kick Some Butt

A trio of martial artist villains worthy of a Hong Kong action-fantasy movie.

The Three Masters

These three anachronistic martial artists originate from an alternate-timeline version of the Chinese empire in 69AD, which is secretly controlled by a conspiracy of sorcerous eunuchs who subtly dominate the Imperial court.  They've used magic rituals to come to the "future" of your campaign for some mysterious objective, and if the heroes don't stop them who knows what kind of temporal disruptions might take place?  All of them are decidedly villainous types, although they have their own unique approaches to evil and aren't equally committed to whatever they shared goal is.

Depending on how long they've been in the current time when the heroes first encounter them, they may or may not have made contacts within the criminal underworld.  If not they'll be working largely alone, although Master Fleeting Dream may be able to conjure up demonic or undead minions galore if he can perform the proper rituals.  They're all good at fitting in to the scum and villainy community and won't find it hard to recruit more modern help once they do make contact. 

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Master Fleeting Dream

Xiu Zhang is Master of the Fleeting Dream style, an accomplished sorcerer, and a proud (some would say egotistical) member of the conspiracy that secretly controls the Chinese empire in 69AD.  He serves as de facto leader of the Three Masters on their mysterious mission to the future, and his magical talents allow them to blend in to the world of 2023 as well as being their ticket back to the past.  As such, he expects the others to watch his back, obey his commands and remain loyal to him.  A pretentious, arrogant and evil-minded individual through and through, he might see two of those three expectations fulfilled if he's lucky.

His martial arts style uses a great deal of out-and-out magic in it, focusing on confounding opponents with illusion and trickery while he flits from victim to victim with enchanted blades flashing.  He also know how to scribe magical talismans (usually strips of paper with incantations written on them) to create good fortune and repel bad luck from whoever they're attached to.  These are usually used to enhance himself first and foremost, but he may deign to support his allies as well.  Given time and supplies (which may include a suitable sacrificial victim) he can manage many other feats of magic as well.

Description: A slightly plump, shaven-headed man with a striking Fu Manchu mustache, dressed in an expensive brocade robe in deep purple.  Often cloaked in sorcerous illusions to blend in better, or simply invisible to avoid attention.  His voice is surprising high and boyish.  He generally provides magical translation charms to all his allies in the modern day, which has the side effect of making their lips seem to be slightly out of synch with their words. 

Gender: Imperial Eunuch And Proud Of It     Age: Thirties     Height: 5'8"     Eyes: Green

Hair: Shaved Smooth     Skin: Light East Asian Tone     Build: Slightly Soft-Looking

Approach: Ninja                   Archetype: Inventor

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Dream-Cutting Blades d10, Inventions d10, Illusions d8, Invisibility d8, Teleportation d6

Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Stealth d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Finesse d8, Master of Fleeting Dream Style d8

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Fleeting Dream Onslaught (A) Attack multiple targets using Master of Fleeting Dream Style.  Then, end up wherever you want in the scene.

Inscribe Talismans (A) Boost using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Powerful Chi (I) Whenever you create a bonus, increase the value of that bonus by one.

Vanishing Image (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Stealth die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Waking Dream (I) +10 Health.  The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, ability access, and all abilities.  Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while attempting these Overcomes, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Infernal die.

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

Tactics

Master Fleeting Dream relies on misdirection, illusion and trickery.  He usually avoids immediate conflict while using Inscribe Talismans supplemented by Powerful Chi to give lasting bonuses to himself and allies, relying on Vanishing Image to protect him from harm (and produce more bonuses, although these won't affect his status) while he does so.  Once his status die is maxed out and his allies have received whatever benefits he feels they deserve, he shifts to using Fleeting Dream Onslaught to repeatedly appear and disappear while striking as many foes as possible.

His upgrade expands his ability to alter foes' perception, trapping them in a dreamlike illusion.  His mastery lets him create powerful ritual magic effects when supplied with suitable tools, including the temporal passage that brought them to the modern day (or the heroes to the past) in the first place.

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Master Five Venoms

Master Five Venoms' true name is unknown, possibly even to himself.  A master spy, assassin, and infiltrator, he works with the conspiracy controlling 69AD China but isn't fully trusted by them, which is something he admires about the organization.  Trust is for fools.  He (or sometimes she, as the mood takes them) adopts and abandons surface identities regularly, relying on practical disguise and acting skills rather than Master Fleeting Dreams' magical tricks an cunning enough that he can get along fairly well in 2023 even without such assistance.  It's quite possible he might choose to remain in the future after the Three Masters complete their mission, most likely faking his own death to do so.

The Five Venoms style includes a great deal of secret alchemical knowledge beyond mere poison making, including truth drugs, fast-acting medicinal substances, mind-altering vapors and powders, and artificial pheromones that can manipulate many types of animals.  It also offers near-immunity to most poisons and, some say, unnatural longevity or even immortality.  Masters of the style are invariably accompanied by swarms of venomous vermin, which they use both as alchemical components and as an army of chemically-controlled minions.  While each individual stinging scuttler, biting bug or slithering serpent is little threat to a wary human, they never appear as individuals, and many a foe has fallen screaming under a tide of tiny crawling horrors.  

Description: Wildly variable thanks to a talent for disguise, but most often an unassuming local civilian in loose fitting clothing.  At close range their unpleasant chemical scent may give the game away.  When fighting openly, they favor a loose green gi marked with ominous stains and acid burns.  Close observation will reveal they're crawling with vermin infesting their clothing and whatever wig they may be wearing.  They're excellent mimics and can imitate most human voices and some animals.   

Gender: Fluid   Age: Usually Seems Twenty-Something   Height: 5'9"   Eyes: Black

Hair: White (Black Wig)        Skin: Dark East Asian Tone        Build: Deceptively Fit

Approach:  Leech                      Archetype:  Overlord

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Toxic d10, Animal Control d8, Wall-Crawling d6

Qualities: Criminal Underworld Info d8, Master of Five Venoms Style d8, Medicine d8, Stealth d8 

Status:  (# of Minions & Lieutenants) 9+ - d12 / 5-8 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 1-2 - d6 / 0 - d4

Abilities:

Alchemical Effusion (A) Boost using Medicine for all your minions until the start of your next turn.

Enduring Vermin (R) Reroll any number of minion saves against the same Attack.

Stinging Strike (A) Hinder using Toxic.  Use your Max + Min die.  Boost using your Mid die.

Toxic Powders (A) Hinder multiple targets using Toxic.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, Attack one of the targets using your Max die. 

Venomous Little Friends (A) Use Master of Five Venoms Style to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.

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

Master Five Venoms prefers to toy with his foes in combat, leaving the actual killing work to his verminous minions.  He'll usually call on his Venomous Little Friends once or twice at the start of a conflict to establish a decent status die, with each use helping improve the size of minion generated by the next.  Repeat as needed to maintain at least a d8 status.  Multi-target minion sweeps will be met with an Enduring Vermin reaction, and he'll single out heroes with such abilities with Stinging Strike, often taking a twist to make the penalty last for two uses, representing hurling whole handfuls of poisonous insects onto the target.  If there are several heroes focusing on his minions he'll use Toxic Powders instead, spending any available bonuses wherever they seem most useful (healing, improving the penalties, possibly even on damage if he rolls doubles).  If he starts his turn with 5+ minions in play he'll usually switch to Alchemical Effusion rather than acting for himself, trying to deal out massive damage while he has the chance.

His upgrade improves his durability and all his powers, as well as enabling his mastery whenever one of his mods from a Toxic-keyed ability is in play.      

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Five Venoms Swarm d4 to d12 minion (see Venomous Little Friends)

Description: A miscellany of carefully-bred and venomous vermin, including spiders, centipedes, wasps, small serpents and scorpions, as well as less readily-identifiable creations of alchemical hybridization.  What prevents them from scattering or preying on one another is a mystery known only to masters of the Five Venoms Style.  The larger their current die size the denser the swarm is.  

Inescapable Swarm: When you Attack, one point of the damage you deal is irreducible.

Painful Venoms: When you deal damage to a target, they gain a -1 exclusive "Stinging Pain" penalty.

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Master Shackled Fist

Wong Lo is undisputed Master of the Shackled Fist style and an all-around badass brawler.  Once a mere village bully, then an Imperial army levy, he soon deserted to join a mercenary company where he would be paid better for his talent for fighting.  He crossed paths with an aging Shackled Fist practitioner during the course of his adventures and quickly took to the new role of student until he'd surpassed his teacher.  At that point he killed the old man, stole his life savings, and went off to make a name for himself in the world of martial arts fighters, always pursuing any road to wealth that opened before him.  It wasn't long before the eunuch courtier conspiracy approached him to employ his brutal skills in their service, which has now led him to an unimagined future.

His Shackled Fist fighting style mixes savage close quarters techniques with deadly chain-fighting maneuvers that offer some reach and the ability to entangle and drag in elusive opponents.  It also trains endurance and fighting spirit to the limits of human ability, and perhaps a fair way beyond.  Generally seen as a simple style suitable only for thugs, Wong Lo has taken it beyond that stereotype.  He employs his own unique moves along with unexpected cunning to surprise foes who've taken him for merely being an over-muscled thug.

Description: A powerfully built brute of a man, wearing sandals and a white gi with the sleeves ripped off.  He has a steel circlet on his brow and carries a twelve foot length of chain with a hinged iron shackle on each end, donning one or both of them during combat as he performs various moves.

Gender: Male        Age: Thirties        Height: 6'0"        Eyes: Dark Brown

Hair: Shaved, Black Stubble     Skin: Medium East Asian Tone      Build: Ape-Like Brute

Approach: Skilled                         Archetype: Guerrilla

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Fighting Chains d10, Vitality d8, Swinging d6

Qualities:  Close Combat d10, Fitness d10, Acrobatics d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Master of Shackled Fist Style d8, Self-Discipline d8 

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 - d6

Abilities:

Blur of Iron (I) If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by two.

Entangling Chains (A) Attack one target using Master of Shackled Fist Style.  Use your Max + Min die.  Defend against all Attacks from targets other than that target with your Mid die until your next turn.  All Defended damage is dealt to the target of your Attack instead.

Versatile Style (A) Take any basic action using your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid die.

Whirling Chain Deflection (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Close Combat die.  Deal that much damage to another 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 Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome when your payment is at stake.

Tactics

Master Shackled Fist prefers to face his foes in a group, charging into their ranks to use their numbers against them with Entangling Chains and Blur of Iron while further protecting himself with Whirling Chain Deflection as needed.  More cunning than the simple brawler he appears to be, he's quick to use his Versatile Style for unexpected moves and some healing when injured.  Sudden Hinders, Boosts or Overcomes to start challenges or reposition foes are all popular choices.

His upgrade improves both damage output and base Health.  His mastery reflects his greed.  He's here for the pay offered by the Eaters of the Lotus and that alone.

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Design Notes

If it somehow wasn't obvious, the backstory of these three is taken straight from the Shadowfist card game and original Feng Shui RPG.  Not the first time I've done an homage to that superlatively strange setting.  Probably won't be the last.

Blog Content Index

The Camera Crew, Bad Publicity For Good People

Proof positive that not all publicity is good publicity.

The Camera Crew 

The Camera Crew is a trio of de facto villains passing as a new, corporate-backed initiative to improve journalistic relations with the heroic community and provide better (and safer) news coverage to super-crises as they happen.  The pitch seems reasonable on the surface.  A crew of journalists equipped with protective power suits and advanced recording equipment?  Plus they can project defensive holograms for added safety, making them able to operate much closer to a super-fight or disaster than conventional reporters without needing protection from heroes and law enforcement?  The suits are equipped with jump jets and grapples for extra mobility, letting them reach optimal vantage points so the footage will be more useful for post-crime investigations?  Agreements with city and state governments and even federal agencies already in place, protecting against civil liability claims?  And their backers will provide public relations assistance to heroes who don't already have access to them?  What's not to like?

Well, lots of things, because the corporation behind these three has nefarious plans.  

Recordings of heroes in action will be collated and analyzed and then quietly offered for sale to select black market customers.  This will let villains study fighting styles and tactics for weaknesses.  The mechanical effect of this is the ability to gain significant bonuses against "studied" heroes when they trigger minor twists.  Their use will usually be accompanied by the villain quipping that they've seen that trick before or that the hero did that better in the video, which hints at what's going on.

Videos will also be carefully tampered with to make the heroes look careless or inept, and any actual mistakes will be exaggerated if possible.  Crisis actors will be seeded around dangerous situations to make things harder for the heroes, and "expendable" villains will be given covert support and nudged toward certain crimes at certain times when the Crew will be present.  This doctored footage and faked interview material will be "reluctantly" given to legit news outlets and government officials as evidence of heroic wrongdoing.

Ultimately the plan is to ruin not only the PCs' reputation and effectiveness as crimefighters, but to taint the public opinion of heroes as a whole.  The heroes might even find themselves outlawed and forced into true vigilantism, perhaps even hunted by their own former allies.

This probably won't come to pass in full. The players will likely smell something fishy and take proactive steps to investigate the Crew, or one of them (most likely Camera Two, who's the most unstable of the lot) will blow her cover and take the whole plot down with her.  But the Crew's real backers are insulated by layers of corporate ownership and legal fictions, and if everything does end in disaster they'll see it as a learning experience.  After a while they'll pick up the pieces and attempt another scheme, and they might even arrange for the Camera suits to wind up in the hands of criminals who can use them for more conventional villainy - perhaps even with their original operators, who are likely to have even more of a grudge against law and order than before.

Camera One

Koa Calimbas is a former indie film director who screwed up big time by releasing a documentary full of faked interviews and altered images that painted a popular hero team as violent thugs, apparently based on a personal grudge against them.  He avoided jail, but the civil suit and bad publicity left him nearly penniless and unemployable.  When he was offered a position on the Camera Crew he leapt at the opportunity, and has extended his previous dislike for a handful of heroes to the entire superhero community.  He's not great at concealing his enmity, but usually stays buttoned up in his suit where he won't be recognized and can remain more socially remote.  Koa is actually quite a competent filmmaker and really cares about the quality of his work, unlike his teammates.

His camera suit is optimized for projection, recording and sound effects, and he makes imaginative use of his illusions to mess with heroes and onlookers whenever he can get away with it.  If it comes to a fight he has a very potent sonic attack backing up his other abilities.

Description: Outside of his suit, a rather slovenly-dressed middle-aged man of Hawaiian ancestry with strangely familiar features.  Hey, is that the guy who directed that documentary about supers with all the faked footage?

In his suit, an anonymous figure in snug-fighting lightweight yellow power armor with a some black striping and a prominent black "ONE" printed vertically on the left side of the chest.  The helmet is an opaque ovoid with an array of holo-camera recorder/emitter lenses and microphone grills covering the faceplate.  A cluster of much larger lenses and mikes occupy the center of the chest and there are small mikes on the back of each gauntlet.  His voice is disguised behind a vocal masking effect that gives it a mechanical tone.  

Gender: Male        Age: 35        Height: 5'10"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Shaved Scalp        Skin: Hawaiian Tan        Build: Broad-Shouldered

Approach: Skilled                   Archetype: Inventor

Health: 25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d10, Sonic d8, Power Suit d6

Qualities: Creativity d10, Stealth d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Disgraced Documentary Filmmaker d8, Investigation d8, Technology d8

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Final Sound Check (A) Attack using Sonic and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice and add all your bonuses to the total, destroying them.

Grand Artistic Vision (A) Hinder multiple targets using Creativity.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, Attack each of those targets using your Mid die. 

One-Man Crew (A) Take any basic action.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid die.

Set the Scene (A) Boost using Illusions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Mook Squad +0 Health.  Gain Extras On Set (A) Replenish your minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.

Master of Enforced Order (I) If you have complete control over your surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Tactics

Camera One is the auteur of the group and has the most skill at tweaking scenes to make the heroes look incompetent or overly violent.  If left alone he's as likely to spend actions on Overcomes to serve that purpose or (with his upgrade) order the extras around, usually starting with Set the Scene for a good persistent bonus on himself and a regular bonus to either keep or hand off to Camera Two.  If forced to fight, he'll rely on Grand Artistic Vision to confound (and possibly harm) foes at first, switching to One-Man Crew if injured.  At a dramatically appropriate moment he'll pick a particularly troublesome hero and single them out for a brutal Final Sound Check hit.

His upgrade gives him a steady supply of extras to use, and the mastery to get them to follow his directions flawlessly.  

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Camera Two

Kansas Washington (her middle name is City) is a former private investigator who lost her license and five years of freedom when she was caught running a blackmail scheme.  Thoroughly unethical and interested only in money, she only got on to the Camera Crew because she was a former cellmate of Janell Wittson (see below), who owed her some favors and appreciated the idea of having some muscle on the team just in case.  She doesn't have any particular beef with superheroes in general, but she's no great fan either and her short temper and borderline paranoia makes her the most likely person to break cover and start a real fight.  She never opens up her suit around outsiders if she can avoid it, and uses her PI skills to avoid tails and surveillance when in her civilian ID.  On the other hand, she's also the most likely Crew member to take a bribe to reveal what's really going on - if you haven't made her mad.

She doesn't use her suit as well as her teammates, but is good at sneaking in "accidental" hits that look like they came from some other source.  Her loadout is optimized for lighting effects, holo-projection and recording snap shots, which also makes it a walking arsenal of laser weaponry if a battle starts - whether Kansas starts it or not.     

Description: Outside of her suit, a powerfully built African-American woman with a cold look in her eyes and several small facial scars from past brawls.  She's fond of men's clothing (especially a noir PI look) and could easily be mistaken for a man at first glance, which is a great way to tick her off right from word one.

In her suit, an anonymous and androgynous figure in snug-fighting lightweight bright orange power armor with a some black striping and a prominent black "TWO" printed vertically on the left side of the chest.  The helmet is an opaque ovoid with an array of holo-camera recorder/emitter lenses covering the faceplate.  A single very large lens occupies the center of the chest and there are small lenses on the back of each gauntlet.  Her voice is disguised behind a vocal masking effect that gives it a mechanical tone, further increasing of misgendering her and getting on her bad side.  

Gender: Female        Age: 33        Height: 5'10"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Deep Brown        Skin: Mahogany Brown        Build: Gym Gal

Approach: Leech                   Archetype: Inventor

Health: 25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d10, Radiant d8, Power Suit d6

Qualities: Creativity d8, Ex-Con Cellmate d8, Technology d8, Stealth d8 

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Final Lighting Check (A) Attack using Radiant and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice and add all your bonuses to the total, destroying them.

Reaction Shot (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Illusions die.  If this negates the Attack entirely, Hinder the Attacker and Boost yourself using the same roll.

Set the Scene (A) Boost using Illusions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Wide-Angle Shot (A) Hinder multiple targets using Illusions.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, Attack one of those targets using your Max die. 

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hardier Minions + 5 Health.  Gain Bonus Pay (A) Upgrade a number of your minions equal to the number of heroes in the scene by increasing their die size by one (max d12).

Master Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome when your payment is at stake.

Tactics

Camera Two is the least interested team member when it comes to getting good footage, and the quickest to resort to obvious violence when threatened.  She'll try to use Set the Scene for bonuses (often sharing with Camera One) at least once before their cover is blown, then immediately use Final Lighting Check on the toughest foe.  She'll use Reaction Shot at every opportunity, hoping to trigger its strong rider effects and roll the bonus straight into another super-zap.  When hurt or outnumbered and currently lacking bonuses she resorts to Wide-Angle Shot to buy time and maybe get a lucky shot in.

Her upgrade lets her improve the performance of either simple thugs or actors, and is one of her go-to moves while still covert.  Her mastery reflects that fact that she's in this for the paycheck rather than the art.    

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Camera Three

Janell Wittson was sleazy publicity agent known for representing dodgy business and suspected criminal bigwigs.  This led to a three year interruption in her career when she was convicted for fraud after being a little too enthusiastic about lying for a corporate client with mob connections.  It was during her prison term that she met and more or less befriended Kansas Washington (see above).  Once Janell was at liberty again she set about restarting her career, only to be offered an "exciting new opportunity" as part of the Camera Crew.  The project seemed a bit risky, but she'd always been a bit of adrenaline junkie and her new employers had some...information from her former clients that made refusal unwise unless she wanted to return to jail for a much longer stay.  Janell managed to get Washington on to the Crew as well, and in a pinch expects more backup from her than she probably ought to.

Unlike her teammates Janell doesn't actively conceal her identity.  If confronted about her past, she can convincingly explain that she was young and had made some poor choices in business associates.  She served her time and learned her lesson, so what's the problem, hero?

Her suit carries the usual array of holo-recorder/projector gear optimized for close-up action shots, but it also mounts an extensive drone control system for coordinating small aerial remotes for coordinating multi-angle shots and big scenes.  These also double as a tactical comms and recon net, and she tends to work closely with her teammates if a fight breaks out.      

Description: Outside of her suit, an adult blonde woman with an expensively tailored wardrobe designed to favor her slightly stocky figure, something she's sensitive about.  She's always got a friendly smile on her face, even when she's shafting someone in a business deal.

In her suit, an anonymous figure in snug-fighting lightweight fire engine red power armor with a some black striping and a prominent black "THREE" printed vertically on the left side of the chest.  The helmet is an opaque ovoid with an array of holo-camera recorder/emitter lenses covering the faceplate and a crown of short drone-control antennae.  A small cluster of lenses occupies the center of the chest and there are small lenses on the back of each gauntlet.  Her voice can be disguised behind a vocal masking effect that gives it a mechanical tone, but she usually leaves it off so she sounds more personable.

Gender: Female        Age: 32        Height: 5'7"        Eyes: Cornflower Blue

Hair: Blonde, Short     Skin: Tanned Year Round     Build: A Little Stocky

Approach: Tactician                         Archetype: Guerrilla

Health: 40 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d8, Remote Viewing d8, Awareness d6, Power Suit d6

Qualities:  Creativity d10, Technology d8, Unethical Publicist d8, Stealth d6

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 - d6

Abilities:

Good Under Pressure (I) At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.

Hard To Pin Down (I) If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by two.

Scene Direction (A) Boost using Creativity.  Use your Max die.  That bonus applies to every ally's action until the start of your next turn.

Work With Me Here (A) Take a basic action using Technology.  Use your Max die.  One nearby ally takes the same basic action as their reaction.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Shooting Permit (I) +10 Health.  The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, ability access, and all abilities.  Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while attempting these Overcomes, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Illusions die. 

Master of Profitability (I) If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who pays the price.

Tactics

Camera Three is the oddball in the group, with a much more up-front style where she tries to add to the heroes' confusion while getting close-up footage, all while also monitoring the full scene with remote microdrones.  In a fight she still stays close and draws attention, hoping to get the most out of Good Under Pressure and Hard To Pin Down.  If she's got a lot of allies in play her go-to move is Scene Direction with Illusions or Remote Viewing, setting up a global bonus for everyone.  If their side's numbers are running low she'll switch to Work With Me Here in conjunction with a single ally for whatever needs doing most.  Worth noting that Camera Two hates having her reaction "stolen" for this ability, and the rider won't work on her at all if she's already used her own reaction ability. 

Her upgrade represents the team doing extra prep work to seem legit, which can really leave heroes struggling.  Her mastery doesn't come up in combat often, although she's not above a little kleptomania when filming at a site with a lot of valuables.  

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The Camera Crew sometimes employs actual everyday thugs, but they prefer specially trained flunkies who know how to act harmless and mug to the cameras when there's an extra opportunity to make the heroes look bad.  They're being paid extremely well to keep their mouths shut if they do get caught out in any fakery, so they're not likely to provide any leads without using powers on them.

Crisis Actor d6 minion

Description: They're just regular people, right?  Right?  Heroes can't use excessive force on them no matter how much they get in the way.  The negative publicity would be terrible.

Faked Injuries: Any hero may take an Overcome action to remove you from play.  If they would generate a twist while doing so, roll your die, deal that much morale damage to the hero, and then you are removed from play.  This counts as the required twist, regardless of whether it was major or minor.

"Innocent" Bystanders: You may not be targeted by hero Attacks or take Attack actions yourself.  If you ever roll a zero or less on your die due to penalties you are removed from play without harm.

Please Move Along: NPC law enforcement officers may take an action to remove you from play automatically.

Everyday Thug d6 minion

Description: Petty criminals, but they are packing concealed heat courtesy of the Crew's backers.  They're not keen on fighting heroes but the pay (and promised legal services if arrested) makes them willing to give it a shot.  This is just day labor for them, they know nothing about any grander schemes.

Heart's Not Really In It: If you ever roll a zero or less on your die due to penalties you are removed from play without harm.

Playing Innocent, But Not Very Well: You may not be targeted by Attack actions until you've taken an action that targets anyone but yourself in the scene.

Camera One, Two, or Three d10 lieutenant 

Description: Any of the Camera Crew members as a lieutenant rather than a full villain, for use as needed.  They look just like their regular versions, of course.  When they use any of the abilities below, the source of the effect isn't immediately obvious and can only be detected by a hero succeeding at an Overcome, either during the scene or when reviewing events afterward. 

False Images: When you take an Overcome action to interact with a challenge, you gain a +2 bonus and you may choose to add an extra success to the total needed to complete the challenge rather than marking one off. 

Holo-Projectors: When you take a Hinder action you may Hinder multiple nearby targets.

Image Relays: When you Boost yourself, you may also Boost up to two allies.

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Campaign Notes

Who's behind this whole scheme is up to you and your campaign's established setting.  In my campaign their ultimate backers were the anti-supers group SEVER.  It could just as easily have been a carefully-concealed subsidiary of the corporation that funds Hothead instead if I'd wanted a smaller scope to things.  In the Sentinels setting, this could be a Glamour scheme, Baron Blade being unusually subtle, or (if you're running pre-Oblivaeon or an alternate future) the old villainous Revocorp.  The GM should also consider how long they want the Crew around before their cover is inevitably blown, and make allowances for the players derailing your plans and getting suspicious earlier.

If they're intended to be a simple one-and-done, the whole team can show up to film a minor crisis - a mundane bank robbery (maybe even using some of their minions as well) or a fight with a minor villain or two - and then more or less immediately betray themselves, turning the scene into a conventional brawl.  Consider adding a few rounds in Red depending on how long the Crew was pretending to be harmless photojournalists.  You could extend this to an issue or three by having them "play nice" for a few scenes before something gives them away, maybe gradually ramping up the number of "accidental" Hinders they take over time.

If you want them around for a collection or more, a slow burn approach where just a single Camera shows up for an action scene or two, then a pair of them, and finally the full team is a good approach.  Play them as helpful at first, let the players get used to them showing up often but not always.  In any scene where they're expected to remain "friendly" use the lieutenant version above, switching to the full villain writeup if their cover is blown and they start fighting for real.  If they took damage prior to such a switch, reduce their starting Health by 10 for each die step the lieutenant form lost from their starting d10.  If they do switch mid-scene, add at least one Red round to the scene tracker, two if in Yellow, and three if already in Red.

When playing the "long con" you'll need to work in some hints and clues for the heroes to investigate and there should be multiple opportunities for social scenes with Crew, either in uniform or (if they can be identified) in their civilian IDs.  Their personalities will influence how things go, and might very well lead to one or more of them betraying the rest.

Blog Content Index

Hexxus Alpha, Self-Replicating Alien Bioweapons

A general type of high-end alien bioweapon rather than a singular villain, these things can fill the general role of "weird space monster" as well.  If you have Thorathians in your game they'd also make a nice new breed of genebound for your heroes to deal with.  And yes, their physical form was loosely inspired by Worsel the Velantian of Lensmen fame, although even these critters fall far short of the capabilities of a Second Stage Lensman.

Hexxus Alpha

Hexxus Alpha (plural and singular) are the adult form of a engineered bioweapon used by a number of galactic powers as self-perpetuating shock assault troops.  They're built to operate in a wide variety of environmental conditions, from toxic high-gravity hell worlds to hard vacuum and microgravity, and can significantly alter their size through tissue expansion and contraction to fit into (and fight within) most structures or vessels.  Strictly close-combat fighters at their best in the thick of a fight, they have the speed, agility and durability to close the distance even through a storm of advanced weapons fire.

The greatest strength of the Hexxus bioweapons line is their self-sustaining nature.  While individuals are have short active service lives, once they reach adulthood (a matter of days) they can parthenogenically reproduce themselves at fearful speeds.  Hexxus are fully capable of spawning a new generation of reinforcements during combat, with their newborns experiencing explosive growth rates that make them capable combatants within a minute of hatching.  The more stress a Hexxus is under the faster its metabolism works, making it vital to kill them as quickly as possible.

Hexxus are true wonder of bioengineering, rivalling even the most deadly naturally evolved species like the fearsome Dreadmorphs.  Rumors of them developing true sapience following exposure to unusual radiations or telepathic stimuli are just that, mere rumors, and as such can be safely ignored by potential users.

Description: A six-legged alien like serpentine lizard with a pair of slender but powerful dragon-like wings and a long whip-like tail.  Its head is mostly a narrow crocodilian snout with jaws that open horizontally rather than vertically, ringed by half a dozen glittering black eyes.  Each limb ends in four oversized crystalline talons, and the tail sports yet another sword-like blade.  Dozens of translucent crystal nodules cover the creature's back like barnacles, each containing a tightly-coiled unborn duplicate of the creature awaiting release.  The things are silent, and even telepathy detects little beyond aggressive instinct at play.  

Gender: Parthenogenic     Age: Under Two Years     Height: Varies, ~10' Base     Eyes: Six

Hair: Scattered Violet Tufts     Skin: Deep Green, Scaled     Build: Winged Serpent/Lizard

Approach: Creator                         Archetype: Guerrilla

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Vitality d10, Flight d8, Natural Arsenal d8, Size-Changing d6

Qualities:  Fitness d10, Acrobatics d8, Alertness d8, Close Combat d8, Engineered Bioweapon d8

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 - d6

Abilities:

Hyper-Metabolism (I) At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.

Opportunistic Cannibalism (R) When one of your minions is defeated, roll its die and Recover that much Health.

Spawning Surge (A) Use Fitness to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of those minions is the same as your Min die.

Whirlwind of Monocrystal Claws (A) Attack using Natural Arsenal.  Use your Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second target, and your Min die against a third target.  If you Attack three targets the damage is irreducible.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Engineered Bioweapon by one (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

A Hexxus Alpha is a bioweapon programmed to eliminate anything that isn't on its "safe" list.  If need be it can be put into torpor or target selection can be modified with suitable electromagnetic or telepathic key-codes, but the creatures are designed to be largely autonomous and self-sustaining.  In combat they rely on using a Whirlwind of Monocrystal Claws against as many foes as possible while accumulating bonuses from Hyper-Metabolism.  Once low on Health they'll try to maximize their status die and then pause to use Spawning Surge with all their bonuses to produce a flood of minions.  Once that's done they'll go back on the offensive while reactively feasting on any fallen minions with Opportunistic Cannibalism.

Few Hexxus Alphas last beyond a battle or two, but those who do gain their upgrade and become Hexxus Omegas, the ultimate evolution of the bioweapon form.  Their mastery reflects a greater ability to coordinate the younger Hexxus forms.

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Hexxus Newborn d6, d8 or d10 minion (see Spawning Surge)

Description: "Infant" versions of the adult Hexxus, about six feet long and lacking functional wings.  

Monocrystal Claws: You may only Attack targets in melee, but you may reroll ones when you do so. 

Hexxus Juvenile d10 lieutenant

Description: Almost full-grown versions of the adult Hexxus, about eight feet long and capable of flight.  They lack the adult form's signature spawning nodules.

Flurry of Monocrystal Claws: You may only Attack targets in melee, but you may reroll your die when you do so.

Winged: You may move as though you had Flight d8.

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Klass K, Trainee Villains On A Field Trip To Your Dimension

A long organizational post with some light worldbuilding sketched out.  Includes five supervillain writeups, a reason for them to work together, and an alternate universe where the most immediately noticeable difference is the total lack of a hard "c" in English.  "Kays" all the way down, folks. 

The Klassroom Program

The multiverse contains many realities, some very different from your campaign's.  One of them (let's be Terracentric and call it Earth-K) features a different world where super-being activity is more widespread and more organized than our own.  The heroes of that world work closely together on a global scale to oppose all manner of supervillainy, and those villains have grudgingly organized in return to avoid facing defeat in isolation.  This state of affairs has continued since their version of World War Two, although both groups have become much more internationally-minded and unwilling to serve as military assets to nation-states.  A de facto Cold War exists between the two sides in the conflict at this point, with small clashes largely staying below the radar of the masses of mundane humanity.  

Both meta-groups expend a great deal of effort tracking down and recruiting new super-beings to their cause.  The heroes have the advantage of recognition by most governments and law enforcement agencies, but they're limited by their own ethical standards.  The villains have to rely on more covert methods to find likely new prospects, but they can also be as ruthless as they like in the hunt, and think nothing of mentally indoctrinating particularly attractive candidates.

These new supers receive far more actual training than our own before they're fully recognized as a part of the greater community.  Heroes come up through actual academies as well as the old traditions of sidekicking and junior team affiliations.  Villains rely more upon the Klassroom Program, a worldwide covert recruitment, assessment and training program that also doubles as an introduction to the underground super-crime community and its major players.  

When they've mastered their powers and learned the unwritten rules that keep inter-villain conflict to a minimum, students are formed into groups to do some actual field work before "graduating" to independent status.  This used to be a risky stage of a villain's development since the odds of being captured on during such excursions were quite high and unproven villains were unlikely to be rescued by a organized jailbreak the way established supercriminals are.  Thankfully for the Klassroom Program, a neighboring reality was found with a far lower population of super-beings, especially heroes.  

While cosmic stresses made it impossible to remain in the other reality for long before being cast back to Earth-K, there was enough time to make short "field trips" with small groups of students and a single instructor/observer to assess their performance.  The relative rarity of super-heroes made for less punishing testing, and even when captured the students would soon be forced home anyway, vanishing from even the most inescapable prison cell.

The writeups below represent Klass K on a field exam to your campaign world.  They can be used as a one-shot, or might make up a collection's worth of story if their current test is a complex one.  The same group can recur multiple times until they finally graduate.  Their membership may change over repeat appearances as some studens move on or are "flunked out" (often directly into some mastermind's experimental labs) while others are held back.

If you feel ambitious, your heroes might find a way to follow a Klass back home, but they may not like what they find.  It would be disastrous if the legions of super-beings on Earth-K found a way to transit to your campaign world en masse and settle their differences where your PCs call home rather than wrecking their own planet.

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Klass K

Kommander Konquest

Quiriel zan vi Martiana has been a villain for a very, very long time by human standards, having first attacked Earth in 1939 under the title of Kommander Konquest.  While still in the prime of her life (only a few Terran centuries old), she's taking a break from interplanetary raiding to act as a senior instructor for the Klassroom Program, ensuring that the heroic opposition doesn't gain a numerical edge that might endanger established villains and their schemes.  The fact that it also lets her size up potential allies, catspaws, and competition before they've attained real power hasn't escaped her, of course.

In "field trip" mode she leaves behind her usual legions or Martian soldiers and war machines, relying on using her personal reality-bending cosmic powers to stay safe from any irritating local heroes who get past her students.  The Kommander can also casually warp the more pliable spacetime of your campaign's reality to complicate the tests she's putting her students through.  Unless very hard pressed (in which case her whole Klass is getting failing grades) she's unlikely to take much of a direct hand in a fight, and could reasonably be treated as a "powerful entity" twist menu instead of a full villain writeup if the GM likes.        

Description: A very typical Martian warrior queen from an alternate reality.  Tall, well-built humanoid with bright green skin and a slightly oversized head topped with a crown of six motile antennae.  She's garbed in ceremonial (and weirdly revealing) Martian armor that adds a good bit of height and bulk thanks to its stiletto heeled boots and impressive shoulder pads - all while leaving her midriff and thighs bare.  She rarely bothers to speak out loud, relying on natural telepathy instead. 

Gender: Female     Age: Gentlemen Don't Ask     Height: 5'11" (6'2" in armor)    Eyes: Black

Hair: Bald, Crown of Antennae        Skin: Vibrant Green                Build: Powerful

Approach: Generalist                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  55 + (5 x H)

Powers: Presence d10, Cosmic d8, Teleportation d8, Telepathy d6

Qualities: Imposing d10, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Veteran Villain d8, Deep Space Knowledge d6

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

Abilities:

Barely Worth Saving (R) When an ally is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single Teleportation die.  Boost yourself using the same roll.

Beyond Your Reality (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment's turn.

Careless, Hero, Very Careless (R) When Attacked, redirect the Attack to an environmental minion.

Toying With Your World (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone or one zone closer to the Red.

You Have My Attention (A) Attack using Veteran Villain.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.

You Insects Annoy Me (A) Hinder multiple nearby targets using Presence.  Boost yourself using your Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually only for the Final Exam):

Defense Shield (I) You cannot be damaged by anything except yourself until the defense shield is destroyed.  The shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can use a Reaction to Attack that hero by rolling your single Presence die.  Gain Reestablish Shield (A) Overcome using Cosmic.  Use your Max die.  On a success remove one success from the deactivation challenge.  Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use your Max die to Recover that much of the shield's Health.  This ability cannot be used if the shield has been completely removed.

Master of Enforced Order (I) If you have complete control over your surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Tactics

Kommander Konquest is here as an observer and instructor for Klass K, not to get in pointless brawls with heroes she doesn't even know.  Given her druthers she's content to find a good vantage and leave the students to it, using Toying With Your World to create "interesting" situations.  She's far Beyond Your Reality so dangerous environmental effects (and local residents) mean nothing to her.  If pestered by heroes she'll discourage them with reactive teleports causing them to target innocent civilians using Careless, Hero, Very Careless.  She might also intervene to preserve a trainee villain with Barely Worth Saving, although she'll be quick to express her displeasure about it.  Only if seriously pressed by multiple heroes will she resort to using You Insects Annoy Me, while a single persistent nuisance might draw an actual Attack from You Have My Attention.  If things have gotten to that point and her students are still active she'll be quick to order them to get it together and deal with the local supers, otherwise she'll start planning a getaway herself.

She'll generally only have her upgrade and mastery for the final exam, at least while acting in a "schoolteacher" role.

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Kid Klotho

Kora Raphti inherited a talent for magic from her mother's family, a lineage that had produced low-tier villainous super-mages during the past World Wars and was already on the Klassroom Program's watch list.  Young Kora was quietly "collected" at the tender age of nine and proved to be an apt student over the course of her apprenticeship.  As Kid Klotho she serves as Klass K's expert in mystic matters and is one of the group's most ambitious members, with a knack for manipulating others that may well see her graduate at the head of the class.

Her unique magical style revolves around generating glowing blood-red strands of energy that she can use to bind victims on both a physical and metaphysical level.  Kid Klotho's threads can also be used more subtly to influence people's thoughts and emotions, as well as offering the physical mobility to avoid the worst melee threats.

Description: A young woman of Grecian descent, dressed in a medium-red bodysuit uniform under a  loose black tunic that bears a prominent yellow "k" on the left chest.  Her feet are usually bare, and her long, flowing hair is tied back with the same magical red threads that she uses for most of her magic.  More thread is wound loosely around her wrists and ankles, and stray loops and strands twitch and drift randomly around her even when the air is still.  She speaks slightly-accented English from her home dimension.

Gender: Female           Age: 18           Height: 5'7"           Eyes: Black

Hair: Flowing Black                Skin: Light Brown                 Build: Elegantly Slender

Approach: Tactician                          Archetype: Inhibitor

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Agility d8, Swinging d8, Awareness d6, Suggestion d6                                        

Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Persuasion d8, Trainee Villain d8, Acrobatics d6

Status: (# of heroes with penalties) 0 - d6 / 1-2 - d8 / 3+ - d10

Abilities:

Interwoven Souls (A) Hinder using Swinging.  That penalty is persistent and exclusive.  As long as that penalty is in play, reduce damage dealt to you by one and whenever you are dealt damage, the target with this penalty takes one irreducible damage.

Pulling Strings (R) Take one irreducible damage to reroll an ally's dice pool.

Puppetry (A) Take a basic action using Magical Lore.  Use your Max die.  One nearby ally also takes that same basic action as their reaction.

Red Threads (A) Hinder using Swinging.  Use you Max + Mid dice, or use your Max die and make that penalty persistent and exclusive.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Trainee Villain by one (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

Kid Klotho is Klass K's mystic, relying on fate-weaving magics that manifest as luminous red threads of energy.  Her usual tactics involve binding as many heroes with Interwoven Souls as possible, then singling out the biggest threats with Red Threads - especially if they've shrugged off the previous penalty.  She also provides some support with her Pulling Strings reaction offering some dice-fixing to allies, and Puppetry letting her improve action economy for things outside the team's usual wheelhouse.  Of all the Klass she's the most likely to improvise with unexpected Overcomes and unusual dice pools.

Her upgrade and mastery both represent Kid Klotho growing into the full potential of her unique style of magic as Graduation Day approaches.

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Musclemind

The creature known as Musclemind was recruited for the Klassroom Program relatively late in life after an anonymous college undergraduate developed powers during a biochemical mass-casualty event of which he was the sole survivor.  Whoever this thing was originally is a moot point, with the new entity displaying one of the most stereotypical cases of supervillainous megalomania ever observed.  Powerful but deeply delusional, it's unclear if Musclemind even knows they're in training and their performance is under review, but (after some initial friction) they've adopted the rest of Klass K as their loyal henchmen while the rest have decided to simply humor him for the time being.

Musclemind possesses staggering physical strength backed up by enormous psychic abilities but lacks the experience (and, some would argue, sanity) to fully utilize his great potential.  Whatever knowledge and specialized skills he had in his former life are gone, replaced by largely instinctual responses backed by an overwhelming sense of superiority.  He refuses to acknowledge any inconvenient facts that might get in his way.  What he makes of himself once he graduates Klassroom remains unclear, but he's powerful enough as-is that he's unlikely to wind up as a mere lackey of more established villains.    

Description: A hulking humanoid, almost as broad across the shoulders as they are tall and rippling with muscles.  They have almost no neck, with their bulging oversized head clearly showing elaborate cortical convolutions beneath their nigh-impenetrable skin.  That brain sprawls down the rear of their head and merges, hunchback-like, with the creature's upper spine.  Occasional sparks of purple-white energy crawl across its massive frame.  The thing wears nothing but a pair of oversized black shorts with a prominent yellow "k" on the front of the left thigh.  Their voice is a bellowing roar full of brag and bombast, and their telepathy is equally unsubtle.       

Gender: Male          Age: 21          Height: 7'0"          Eyes: Icy Blue

Hair: None        Skin: Purplish-Blue        Build: Inhumanly Massive and Over-Muscled 

Approach:  Mastermind                      Archetype:  Squad

Health:  25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d12, Telepathy d10, Telekinesis d8

Qualities: Conviction d10, Awareness d8, Close Combat d8, Fitness d8, Ranged Combat d8, Trainee Villain d8

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

Abilities:

Behold My Awesome Power and Tremble! (A) Attack one hero using Conviction.  Hinder all heroes using your Max die.

Revel In My Invincible Might! (A) Boost using Conviction.  Boost another target using your Max die.  Use your Min die to Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn. 

That One Is Mine, Hero! (R) When another villain is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single status die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Your Efforts Amount To Nothing, Fool! (R) When Attacked, Boost yourself using the Attacker's Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

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 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

Musclemind is convinced that he's in charge and the rest of the Klass are merely his henchmen, which is delusional but at this point the rest of the group generally just humors him to save on arguments.  He'll mostly do whatever catches his fancy in a fight, which provides a good distraction once he starts in with Behold My Awesome Power and Tremble! if nothing else.  If he starts drawing a lot of attention he'll use Revel In My Invincible Might! (which at least helps out an ally in the process) and pump any handy bonuses into its Defend rider.  He prefers to use Your Efforts Amount To Nothing, Fool! to reactively Boost himself whenever possible, but he might deign to save an ally instead with That One Is Mine, Hero!  He tends to generate a lot of bonuses and spend them as fast as he gets them to grandstand.   

Musclemind is fond of building "creative" dice pools and making Overcomes that show off his incredible strength of mind and body, so basic actions are always a possibility.  His Conviction quality sees a lot of use, since it reflects his utter certainty that he can't fail against such inferior opposition.

His upgrade tunes his mental might up to the point where the weak-willed might believe he's as awesome as he thinks he is, while his mastery reflects a growing talent for bossing around minions.

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Troublemaker

Jo Torrant was only eleven years old when he gained modest electricity-generation powers during a freak thunderstorm that destroyed his family home and left him an orphan.  He was quickly swept up by recruiters for the Klassroom Program, and soon discovered an aptitude for science and engineering.  Assigned to Klass K as their primary tech-support operative, he's gotten a reputation for being a scrappy if somewhat overconfident fighter.  He's not great at taking orders until he's in over his head, at which case his cocky facade drops and he starts yelling for help.

His signature inventions to date interact with and amplify his personal energies.  They include a pair of hover-boots that let him "skate" over most surfaces and make short jet-assisted leaps, and a wide variety of small gadgets he calls "juicers."  These are designed to clip on to a target and feed them a spectrum of bio-electric energies to enhance or degrade performance.  Troublemaker can also short them out to drain all their power at once to produce some potent electrical discharges.

Description: A young African-American man wearing a medium-red bodysuit uniform under loose black trunks, with a prominent yellow "k" on the left chest.  He has odd metal boots with obvious thruster ports on them, and there are dozens of metal nodules clamped to his outfit and even in his hair, all vaguely beetle-like in appearance and varying from thumb-sized to others that would fill the palm of his hand.  His voice is a deep baritone with a faint but unfamiliar accent and an intermittent undertone of electrical buzzing. 

Gender: Male     Age: 19     Height: 6'0"     Eyes: Dark Brown With Flickering Sparks

Hair: Black Zigzag Cornrows        Skin: Medium Brown        Build: Lanky

Approach: Underpowered                   Archetype: Inventor

Health:  20 + (5 x H)

Powers: Inventions d8, Electricity d6, Leaping d6, Speed d6

Qualities: Science d10, Technology d8, Trainee Villain d8, Finesse d6 

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Arcing Discharge (A) Attack using Electricity and at least one bonus.  If you have multiple bonuses, you may Attack a second target using your Min die and one other bonus, and may also Attack a third target using your Max die and a third bonus.

Gewgaws (A) Boost using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Gimcracks (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Inventions die.  If your roll reduces the damage to exactly zero, use that roll to Recover that much Health, Boost yourself, and Hinder the Attacker.

Gimmicks (A) Boost using Science.  Use your Max die.  Hinder using your Mid die.  Attack using your Min die.

Self-Defibrillation (I) Whenever you would be reduced to zero or fewer Health, prevent that damage and reduce all of your power dice by one die size.  If this reduces any die below d4 you are knocked out.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

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 Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.

Tactics

Troublemaker is Klass K's primary "tech guy" but isn't afraid to get mixed up in a super-fight.  He's pretty aggressive at first, relying on his Gimcracks reaction for defense and hoping to get a lucky roll to give him the big rider effects from it.  He'll alternate between Gewgaws and Gimmicks to Boost himself until he has three bonuses stacked up, then roll them all into a big Arcing Discharge move.  Jo continues with that pattern until he's forced to use Self-Defibrillation, after which he switches to more of a support roll and handing out bonuses to allies with his various abilities for the rest of the fight - or as long as he lasts, anyway.

His upgrade does wonders for his damage output since his three action abilities all potentially benefit from it, while his mastery reflects growing tech-expertise.  You might even swap Leaping for Flight at that point as he improves his jet-boots for sustained output.

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Twofold

Jon-Jak Morven was born with an extremely atypical neurological structure, almost as though two brains had been physically conjoined within a single skull.  As a child they suffered from a variety of mental health issues that were misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic disorder that developed into a an entirely separate personality over time.  This lead to their father (their mother having died in childbirth) to abandon them to the care of a pediatric asylum.  

When their somato-psionic powers manifested at age 13 it became apparent that Jon-Jak was not only two people sharing the same body, they were capable of modifying that body to better suit their needs.  The Klassroom Program had contacts within the psychiatric facility and were quick to spirit the child away for their own purposes, barely escaping ahead of a mob of "anti-superfreak" bigots bent on killing the youth.  Jon-Jak now prefers to remain in their more powerful four-armed form, although they can revert to their original humanoid body when need be while both personalities remain in joint control.

Twofold's role in Klass K is as a frontline fighter, with low-level superhuman strength, speed and durability combined with perfect coordination between all four limbs and extensive close quarters combat training.  Both Jon and Jak are stereotypical gym bros in terms of interests.  They're very competitive with each other and even more so with others, eager to prove their physical superiority and perfectly willing to resort to violence to do so.

Description: In their "combat" form, a very tall, well-muscled semi-humanoid.  They have four powerful arms and a broad chest and shoulders, making them look rather top heavy.  Their head sports two sets of eyes (alternating blue, green, blue, green) as though the strangely distorted face divided in two just above the nose.  The outlandish figure wears a medium-red bodysuit uniform under loose black trunks, with a prominent yellow "k" on the left chest.  They accessorize with two pairs of fingerless leather gloves with metal-studded knuckles and steel-toed spiked boots.  Their voice is a powerful bass with a faint, unfamiliar accent and sometimes seems to have a faint echo as though a second person were speaking.  

Their civilian form is about five inches shorter and somewhat less athletic, and the lack of extra arms and eyes make it hard to see the connection between the two identities.

Gender: Male (Plural)        Age: 19        Height: 6'4"        Eyes: Blue-Green Heterochromia

Hair: Buzzcut Blonde                Skin: Caucasian                 Build: Variable, Always Very Fit

Approach: Underpowered                   Archetype: Guerrilla

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Morphic Physiology d8, Speed d6, Strength d6, Vitality d6 

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Fitness d8, Trainee Villain d8, Alertness d6

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Comeback Kid (I) Whenever you would be reduced to zero or fewer Health, prevent that damage and reduce all of your power dice by one die size.  If this reduces any die below d4 you are knocked out.

Four-Fist Boxing (A) Attack multiple targets using Close Combat.  Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using your Min die.  

Infighting Tricks (I) If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by two.

Slip That Hit (R) Defend against an Attack by rolling your single status die.  Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.

Windmill Wallop (A) Attack using Morphic Physiology.  If you roll doubles, add that value to your Attack.  If you roll triples, add all three dice to your Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

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 Total Chaos (I) Automatically succeed at an Overcome when you throw out all the rules during a situation that is spiraling out of control.

Tactics

Twofold is a brawler, plain and simple.  Their Morphic Physiology's ability to swap to a mundane form is occasionally useful for schemes and scams, but mostly they act as a distraction and lightweight muscle for the rest of the Klassroom.  In a fight they'll try to crowd in on multiple opponents to use Four-Fist Boxing, their Slip That Hit reaction (which can redirect Attacks on allies if need be) and Infighting Tricks to their best.  If facing a single very tough opponent they'll gamble on Windmill Wallop instead.  Comeback Kid will save them from their first KO and pushes them toward going outright berserk.

Their upgrade improves their damage output and durability a fair bit.  Their mastery reflects how unpredictable they can be when a plan falls apart and they're pushed to the wall.  They might even snap out of it and make a getaway, perhaps by slipping out of sight and adopting their "civilian" form to play at being an innocent bystander.

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