nods Okay. I think we're all still in the dark on the details of the OblivAeon event, but I'll take your word for it. I'll be eager to hear the big Letters Page episode(s?) on OblivAeon to hear the lore as clearly as possible.
And for what it's worth, the monthly theme is an organizational theme for me, personally. You guys shouldn't feel obligated to follow my themes at all, though if you'd like to follow suit, feel free!
Villain of the Day: June 7 (Yorick)
A fellow of most infinite jest, the individual known as Yorick is an utter enigma on the Rook City streets. Dressed in a gray-and-black tinted jester's motley, Yorick capers about through the back alleys and twisted side streets of the city, dealing out justice and brutality in equal measure. While some have claimed Yorick to be a champion of the innocent, still others claim that the harlequin has been responsible for some of the most heinous killings Rook City has seen.
Of all the currently active heroes in Rook City, Expatriette has had the most interactions with Yorick. And, by that, she means that she's actually tracked him down once. After coming across Yorick over a group of dead gangers in an alley off of James Madison Avenue, Expatriette had Yorick dead to rights, ordering the harlequin to stand down.
Naturally, Yorick did not. Rather, he vaulted up a fire escape, nimbly dodging between liquid nitrogen rounds, occasionally flinging throwing knives and even a skull-shaped bomb towards Expatriette. Within the smoke and chaos, Yorick led the vigilante on a merry chase across the rooftops, eventually eluding her near the Benton-Hodges Logistics warehouses in southern Rook City.
After the fact, Expatriette did manage to piece together a few details that may provide a way to locate or unmask the harlequin. The throwing knives Yorick used were made of a carbon-fiber alloy used primarily by German armsmakers. This was corroborated by the weighted jester's wand she wrenched away from Yorick, which appeared to be a personally modified version of a Leistung weighted self-defense baton. What Yorick has to do with German armsmakers remains to be seen, as well as why a jester now murders his way through the Rook City slums.
That's a fun little enigma. :D If there's any character you've created so far that I'd like to know more about...
Villain of the Day: June 8 (Big Brother)
If it appears on your screen, he's already come for you. The greatest threat to all those who oppose The State. The digital eyes of Order itself.
They call it Big Brother.
The first instance of it occurring was with PurpleReignx4532. A known hacker and anarchist, PurpleReign was reponsible for three separate data leaks, exposing peoples' sensitive data, credit card numbers, and more digital information all across the internet for easy download. Four days before the FBI raided PurpleReign's apartment complex, the grimacing image of Orwell's Big Brother flashed across his screen. That hour, PurpleReign simply vanished. When the FBI arrived at the apartment, they found the loft in utter disarray, with PurpleReign's mangled corpse laid across her coffee table, a disturbing grin stretched across her face.
The same pattern followed for a number of other hackers, regardless of allegiance. White hat security expert, black hat identity thieves, and all those in between. Big Brother appears on their screen; within the day, that hacker is dead. Each time, a hideous grimace across a body, broken and tortured.
The Paradigms have begun investigating into the true identity of Big Brother, but to little avail, primarily due to time. Their continued efforts in superheroics have left little time to spare for investigations into the deaths of hackers. Despite this, Parse had managed to track down individual packets of data, which had been scattered through a router outside of Boston. Follow-up investigation from the Paradigms is pending though, if there are any traces of data, they may lead straight to Big Brother's true identity...
Villain of the Day: June 9 (Shelob)
Marianne Browning was bitten by a radioactive spider.
Mind you, she had nothing to do with spiders, didn't even like spiders, and was really repulsed by the whole idea of insects ("Yes, I know they're arachnids...") in general. But when she woke from her bed one night, feeling a sharp sting along her calf, she immediately knew what she had swatted. Immediately, Marianne went to the bathroom of her Omaha-area apartment to clean off her hand and to clean out the bite area.
Unbeknownst to Marianne, however? That spider was carried just the tiniest particle of Isoflux Alpha in its venom sacs.
Three days later, in the midst of her Dungeons and Dragons game, Marianne had the strangest itch along her back. She could hardly focus on her elven bard or the terrible combat in which she and her party were locked ("Man, I hate stirges!"). Even a friendly back-scratch from GM Nathan did nothing to alleviate it, and Marianne ended up cutting out early to take a long soak in a warm tub, hoping to put down on some calamine lotion and ease this insatiable itch.
That's when the first leg finally pushed its way through the skin of her back and emerged.
Marianne screamed when she saw it. Screamed bloody murder, in fact. Within the hour, six spindly, arachnile legs had begun protruding from her torso, long enough to lift her entire body up and clamber about. Sobbing in the bathtub, Marianne had hardly noticed her eyes begin to compound and her teeth elongate into needle-like fangs.
In thid midst of all this, Marianne's elderly neighbor, Mrs. Watson, stumbled into the poor girl's apartment. With one look at unfortunate Marianne, huddled in the bathtub screaming, Watson collapsed to the floor, her weak heart unable to take the shock of such a hideous monstrosity. Desperate and bawling, Marianne tried to revive the old woman, but to no avail. In a blind panic, Marianne skuttled down the side of her apartment building and vanished into the night.
To this date, tales of "the spider-woman" still haunt urban legends throughout the Midwest. Marianne does her best to keep to herself, but she does need to eat and, increasingly, her diet must be comprised of raw meat. While she desperately hopes that a cure exists for this vile condition, Marianne has taken to calling herself Shelob, a mother of monsters of there ever was one. She wanders from city to city, ever in search of someone or something that will cure her monstrous nature.
Awh. :C
Villain of the Day: June 10 (Saul Bellow)
Things just couldn't go right for poor Saul Stilenka.
His favorite band had announced they were breaking up. HIs longtime, live-in boyfriend was moving out. His job was asking for massive budgetary cutbacks, which meant that he would have to share an office with...ugh, Karen. His beagle puppy had worms. Even the chicken tandoori he brought for lunch had gone off, leaving him without a meal until at least 7pm.
All he wanted to do was scream. So he did.
Heading into the mens' room on his 7th floor office building, Saul locked the door behind him and let out a yell that would sound through the ages. Little did he know, though, that the stress he had been under had unlocked some strange genetic anomaly within him. That yell reached 197 decibels, enough vibrational force to shatter glass, crush plastic, and deafen any poor soul unlucky enough to hear it.
Unfortunately for Saul, that was his entire floor...and the floors above and below his...and the floors above and below that. Computer monitors cracked and flared with sparks, his co-workers howled in deafened pain, and every window in the building had disintegrated into so much shattered glass. Saul smiled. Things were certainly turning around nicely.
Ever the enterprising sort, Saul decided to put his talents up for the highest bidder. A fit enough fellow to start, his basic kickboxing classes and daily runs made him suitable for the life of a masked villain. And, when a certain group called TALOS sought him out, well, Saul couldn't join up fast enough.
Using the code-name Bellow, Saul has refined his powers to an astonishing degree. He can focus his sound energy to a thin cone, able to be aimed at specific targets, or create devastation for blocks surrounding him. While TALOS has yet to deploy Saul--he's not exactly a "stealthy" character, given his unique powerset--they're sure to find some target for destruction for which Saul Bellow will sound his barbaric yawp!
Villain of the Day: June 11 (The Limelight Department)
The original Limelight Department was one of the world's earliest film studios, producing over 300 films, starting as early as 1891. Even as their first feature film was released--Soldiers of the Cross--the Limelight Department brought great controversy. Depicting the brutal torture and death of Christian martyrs from the dawn of Chrstianity, the 1901 release of Soldiers of the Cross was a traumatizing event for many, inciting protests and demonstrations, with some patrons actually fainting in the aisles during the premiere.
The new group calling itself The Limelight Department has added more terror to its storied name.
Those few individuals who have survived their encounters with the The Limelight Department claim several similar stories. A 'recruiter' descends upon a small town, claiming to be looking for aspiring actors and actresses to audition for an upcoming feature film. One on one auditions are set, with predatory 'Producers' watching aspiring actors nervously make their first impressions. Within days, those auditioning actors disappear, never to be seen again. As the disappeared-person's family and friends scramble to reach police and start a manhunt, a simple brown envelope with a DVD arrives in their mailbox. Inevitably, that DVD contains a graphic horror film...starring the missing person.
None know where the Limelight Department operate from, nor who could possibly be affiliated with such a horrific organization. Just before aspiring triple-threat Serena Markovic disappeared, she mentioned meeting with "The Director" and getting fitted for her costume. When police began their investigation, they found themselves on the doorstop of the local Biorama Costume Shop, with a traumatized manager nervously telling of a group of strange 'amateur filmmakers' who purchased a significant amount of costume and makeup supplies. They, too, mentioned how much "The Director" might enjoy these props...though no reference to who that Director might be could be found.
Given his links to San Alonzo and filmmaking in general, several heroes investigating the Limeline Department have contemplated approaching Ansel G. Moreau to see if he knows anything. However, to date, Ansel has outright refused to discuss Limelight or any disappearances that have surrounded their filmmaking practices. Other investigations thusfar have been fruitless, which makes Ansel's reluctance to discuss Limelight all the more suspect...
* * * * * * * *
As mentioned a few weeks back, there will be no Villain of the Day for the next few days, while I'm at the Origins Game Fair. Villain of the Day will return on Monday, June 18th!
You could almost say the Villains of the Day went Direct To Video.
Villain of the Day: June 18 (The Three Men)
Why is it that children's stories are always the most frightening? While Rook City remains firmly in the unseen grip of The Chairman, so few know of his existence (much less his true identity) that the concept of an all-overseeing crime lord seems a fiction, torn from the lurid pulps of yesteryear.
The Butcher, The Baker, and The Candlestick Maker, though? Those names could turn the hardest of Rook City criminals pale as a sheet.
Rumored to work together out of a single location somewhere in the depths of the Rook City docks, The Three Men are believed to be brothers. As the story goes, their father was a steelworker, violent and abusive, while their mother took out her frustration and rage upon her own children when they misbehaved. Unsurprisingly, their parents were their very first victims. The Butcher slipped into his parents' room late one night, hacking into his parents with a small meat cleaver, fresh from the dishwasher. The Baker, walking in on this, aided his brother in dismembering the bodies, shoving them into an already pre-heated oven. The Candlestick Maker, though, toddled in last, aiding the pair by scrubbing the crime scene, melting down the weapon, and ensuring that no one could ever trace the crime back to them.
Today, the trio continue to work from the shadows. The Butcher is, undoubtedly, the muscle of the group. While he can use any number of methods of assassination, he prefers melee weapons; especially those with blades. The Baker has become something of a pyromaniac, though he serves as the group's "body disposal" expert, preferring to cremate bodies and scatter their ashes into local riverways. The Candlestick Maker is the least-combat-apt of the trio, often serving as a "cleaner" at the scene of The Butcher and The Baker's work, but also creating new weapons and armor for them.
In the ruins of Rook City post-OblivAeon, with even The Organization foundering to reclaim territory, resources, and manpower, the Three Men have become so much more than a terrifying bedtime story. As villains need insurgents or would-be heroes eliminated--particularly those that arise within the Rook City police department or similar organizations--the Three Men fall into more and more work. And with each completed job, their legend grows...
Do the Three Men team up with Tantrum at any point? Three Men and a Little Lady, anyone?
Villain of the Day: June 19 (Merger)
In 1943, the United States had made a massive committment of manpower to thwarting the Axis powers. With fewer men of appropriate age, professional sports suffered. Two NFL teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, elected to merge their teams until the war ended, creating the "Phil-Pitt Steagles", a mashed together team which resulted in Philadelphia's first ever winning season.
The villain known as Merger, however, thought that a temporary alliance simply didn't go far enough.
Merger made her first appearance at a recent Philadelphia-Pittsburgh exhibition game. While the teams rested their starters and gave their rookies a chance to show off, Merge made her way down to the field just as Eagles linebacker Asantay Brown dove into Pittsburgh quarterback Landry Jones for a three yard sack. With a wave of her hand, Merger fused the pair's bodies together in a horrific melding of flesh and madness. The Jones-Brown creature rampaged through the crowd as Merger cackled in delight. Fourteen other players were so merged, leading to numerous casualties throughout the crowd as the fans fled Heinz Field in horror. Merger was driven off by Pittsburgh area police and, as Merger made her escape, the hapless football players returned to their normal bodies.
Merger has appeared at a number of similar events, each reflecting some unification or display of unity. Peace talks, corporate acquisitions, and more have all been disrupted by her foul powers, often resulting in a great deal of both trauma and loss of life. Most horrific is when Merger herself begins grafting other beings onto herself, adding their strength and vitality to her own in a terrifying amalgamation of flesh and madness.
While she has shown no aptitude for other arcane talents or sorcery, several magically-talented heroes have noted that Merger's powers have similarity to that of both Biomancer and Hermetic. While this has led some to believe that she is an alchemist or otherwise derives her powers from transmutation, her aims and methods are antithetical to that of nearly every villainous mage or mystic. Instead of seeking out ancient lore or powerful relics, Merger seems utterly fixated on adding her own dash of union to a potential gathering.
And we thought Biomancer was creepy. c.c;
Villain of the Day: June 20 (Lizzie Borden)
We all know the rhyme. It just so happens that Serena Marchess wanted to know it just a touch better.
One of Lillian Corvus' "Dead Poets Society", Serena had always been fascinated by murder, death, and morbidity in general. Serial killers were her especiality. H.H. Holmes was a particular favorite, with his elaborate deathtrap of a hotel, but Serena's outright favorite was the eponymous Lizzie Borden. In her senior English classs, Serena completed her magnum opus: a "Thelma-and-Louise" meets "Kill Bill" rampage, featuring Borden and her rumored lover Bridget Sullivan in which the pair hacked their way through the dregs of American turn-of-the-century high society. While particularly well-researched, Serena's work set off her teacher's alarm bells, who immediately referred her to the school's psychologist.
When Mr. Hardigan was found hacked to death in his bed, as if with a handheld hatchet, Serena immediately rose to the top of the suspects list. However, she was nowhere to be found; a manhunt ensued. What happened to Serena, however, was quite stranger than any investigator could have possibly gathered.
Serena's infatuation with Borden opened the teenager's mind to a Host spirit of obsession. Believing herself to be the heir apparent to Borden herself, Serena merged with the spirit, giving herself over to otherwordly possession. On the rare occasion when she is confronted, Serena has demonstrated a degree of telekinesis (mainly through eerie floating items), the ability to phase through walls as if a ghost, and a preternatural skill with arcanely-summoned axes. The Harpy attempted an exorcism during one such encounter, though Serena/Borden managed to escape before the spirit could be extracted from her. The Argent Adept came closer to success, though it very nearly cost Drake his life, as Serena sunk a hooked axe into the magician's left shoulder.
Even as Serena makes a spectral rampage across the darkest alleys of the world, the world's heroes are still at a loss as to what she actually wants. Serena has done little to replicate the deeds of those she was so obsessed with, nor does she frequent the same haunts as her forebearers. However, the grave of Elizabeth Short--the so-called Black Dahlia--was recently split asunder, as if smote with some massive two-handed axe...
Villain of the Day: June 21 (The Prince)
"Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception..."
In the wake of the lives lost during the OblivAeon event, so many power structures were smashed, so many governments and infrastructures were damaaged irreparably as to leave entire nations leaderless. Would-be warlords and conquerers have emerged in the most unstable portions of the world, attempting to carve out their own niche from the chaos and instability.
Enter the man known only as The Prince.
Dressed in pseudo-medieval royal garb, The Prince first appeared in central Africa, claiming to be able to lead the tribal cultures there into a new golden age, putting them on par with the greatest of western powers. While this might not be out of the norm, the fact that The Prince was a white, (presumably) American with a Midwestern accent who did not speak one iota of any African dialect, his rise to power was nearly unfathomable. Within less than a month, The Prince had managed to consolidate power over three unique tribes, each of which had been at war with the others for decades prior to The Prince's arrival.
The reason for this power lies, however, in The Prince's voice. A metahuman, The Prince is a master of the spoken word: his arguments are persuasive to the point of ultimate loyalty and subservience, his threats inspire terror beyond reason, and his scream is capable of shattering titanium alloy armor plating. His followers, so enthralled, fight with a ferocity unseen by any outside of those utterly dominated or mindless, though both scientific and arcane testing of The Prince's subjects have demonstrated no domination of those individuals. As such, the actual source of The Prince's power still remains to be seen.
What may be more distressing, though, is The Prince's desire for additional power. He has been sighted in a number of other countries throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and in Africa, though various international heroes have managed to thwart his efforts numerous times. Mehit, notably, has come into conflict with The Prince, though she was unaffected by his voice while in her "obsidian giant" form, which seemed to utterly terrify The Prince, who fled the field immediately, leaving a number of followers to cover his escape.
Even still, a number of The Prince's "sleeper agents" travel the world, recruiting and influencing malcontents in global hot-spots, making the way for their Prince to conquer and rule from on high.
Villain of the Day: June 22 (Remarque)
War. War never changes.
Randal Kochanski had been a soldier for far too long. Two trips to Afghanistan, one to Syria, and a United Nations peacekeeping action to the outskirts of Mordengrad, Randal had been in countless firefights, watched good men die beside him, and fought his way through situations even hardened soldiers might have balked at.
Maybe someone should have recognized Randal's state of mind. Maybe someone slipped during his psychological evaluation, preceding his post at Fort Adamant as a weapons testing expert. Maybe someone should have realized what Randal had truly been through, rather than looking at the medals on his chest. Maybe the world might have been spared the horror that is Remarque.
Randal went 'off the reservation' not four months after assuming his post at Fort Adamant. Well before the Termi-Nation event, Randal found himself knee-deep in derivatives from the Bunker project, in an attempt to create sealable infantry armor capable of overcoming biological and chemical attacks, as well as operate effectively in tear gas and smoke. And, while Randal was hardly an engineer, he found himself in a unique position to build such weaponry directly into one of the prototype suits, despite numerous international laws against utilizing biochemical weaponry.
When Randal disappeared with the modified armor, it was a shock to nearly everyone on base. That shock was compounded when Randal first appeared, calling himself Remarque--an homage to the ubiquitous All Quiet on the Western Front and its horrifying depictions of gas-warfare. Randal's first target was Fort Lewis-McChord on Puget Sound. Crashing through the main gates, Remarque was effectively able to ignore the guards' small arms fire, releasing a stream of stinging gas through the main base cafeteria. He then made a beeline for the offices of one of his former commanders, Lieutenant Jacob Gagliardi. As Remarque fled the base, Gagliardi was found writhing in incredible pain, his body covered in stinging welts, his eyes bleeding. Gagliardi died four days later, his body wracked with an unknown neurotoxin.
Since that day, Remarque has actively targeted military bases, often seeking out those who he believes to have turned him into naught but a killing machine. He has personally killed at least 3 other former commanders, as well as several other high-ranking military leaders and congressional 'war-hawks'. No one knows where Remarque is based out of, nor how he maintains his prototype armor, though there must surely be some trail that leads back to Randal himself.
So he's… the fresh prince of bellowing air.
Villain of the Day: June 23 (Scafuri)
Bob Dowell loved to dance.
Even through high school, where his comrades on the football team mocked his digilant ballet- and tap-centric workouts, Bob could hardly be kept off of the dance floor. After an injury ended his collegiate football career, dance saw him through physical therapy necessary to overcome a PCL/ACL/LCL tear in this left knee. There was simply something about the rhythm of the motion, the sway of music, which called to him unlike any other.
This was, of course, because Bob was a nascent metahuman. Each swing of the hips, each plie, each spin, each releve, shunted ambient kinetic energy to his limbs, increasing his strength, speed, and durability in that area. Imagine Bob's surprise, of course, when a simple landing left a six-foot crater in the hardwood floor of his favorite dance studio! Bob was boggled, but continued to practice in secret, often in abandoned industrial parks or vacant parking lots where none would be injured. He soon found that the ambient kinetic weaponry, gathered unto himself through dance, made him a nearly unstoppable force of momentum, capable of kicking through steel security doors, shattering concrete blocks, or punching through hardwood planks.
When his alter-ego of Scafuri first emerged, teaming up with Ray Manta and several other D-list, wanna-be villains, Bob's friends and family were confused. What had changed? Bob was always an affable, energetic person, quick with a joke and always eager to share his love of music and dance. Yet, there he was, fighting the Paradigms in the middle of a Megalopolis power plant. Benchmark claimed, following the encounter, that Scafuri actively spoke to him, saying, "Back off, hero. I don't want to hurt you..." before launching into a swirling salamanca that sent the New Standard flying backwards in a heap of metal. This has given many cause to believe that Scafuri has turned to villainy not out of greed or anger, but out of some external driver, perhaps blackmail. However, even his closest friends and family members have come up empty when trying to figure out what someone might know about Bob Dowell that might drive him to acts of villainy.
A villain with a shadowy motive? That's new...
More like a villain who’s not really wanting to be one…
And VGBM? Lose 100 xp for that joke. If you were at my table, you’d now have the Die of Shame in front of you.