The Big Villains Thread

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
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Villain of the Day: September 19 (Dead Drop)

Amanda Cohen would surely love to leave her days as an assassin-for-hire behind her.  However, targets like Dead Drop just seem to keep coming back to haunt her. 

Once simply a ganger on the Rook City streets, Tyrone Mackintire focused entirely on how to make fast money.  Dealing drugs, serving as hired muscle, or working as a wheelman for drive-bys, Tyrone quickly gained a reputation for being tough and loyal, willing to hire his services out for whomever was willing to pay.  This led him into contact with a number of powerful underworld figures, which in turn led him to the Wretched Hive one Wednesday evening.

That was the night Expatriette shot up the Wretched Hive.

As Tyrone sat, talking with a potential employer over a bourbon, Expatriette burst into the pub, firing with aplomb and dropping a string of grenades into the center of the room.  Tyrone watched as his employer took two rounds--one to center of mass, one to his left shoulder--even as his own drink exploded into shards of glass and ice.  Tyrone moved to run just as the grenades went off...then all went black.

When he awoke, Tyrone found himself dazed and weak in a Rook City coma ward; he had been unconscious for nearly three months, as one of the shards of shrapnel had punctured his cranium, lodging itself in his occipital lobe.  Unfortunately, the depth of the shrapnel made extraction impossible; the metal was trapped in his brain in perpetuity.  However, after nearly two years of rehabilitation and physical therapy, Tyrone found himself back on the streets, eager for a taste of his former life.  

However, something in him had changed.  The piece of shrapnel interfered with the natural bioelectric fields in Tyrone's brain, allowing him to manipulate localized gravitic fields.  Immediately seeing the potential for profit, Tyrone proceeded to make his way back to his various earlier employers, most of whom were eager to pay for some metahuman muscle able to take on some of the so-called heroes that kept popping up in Rook City.  It was then that Tyrone took his 

Under normal use, Dead Drop's powers cause him little harm; he is capable of increasing or decreasing gravity in small areas, usually up to the size of a small room.  However, as he broadens the intensity and scope of his powers--affecting a larger area or intensifying a gravitational field beyond 8g--Tyrone will swiftly find himself with an intense migraine. Despite this, while on the job, Dead Drop always gives his all:  he's nothing if not loyal to his employer.

Strangely, Dead Drop has only encountered Expatriette once since their initial, incidental meeting at the Wretched Hive.  Amanda reported Dead Drop as being conversely smug at her presence, "You're a meta-hunter?  You just made me." and utterly enraged at her for attacking him in the first place.  Expatriette noted that, during the fight, blood seemed to be utterly pouring from Dead Drop's nose and the corners of his eyes, just before he beat a fighting retreat.  Tyrone is, of course, still at large.

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Villain of the Day: September 20 (Stitches)

Faye Diamond had faced a number of horrific denizens of the outer dimensions through the years, cataloguing them in her ever-expanding tome of monsters, The Little Black Book. For many heroes, it serves as a guide on how to escape, banish, or defeat these monstrosities. For Stitches, it’s become more of a shopping list.

Gemma Adelaide was a student of the occult in New Zealand who dabbled in otherworldly creatures. She summoned her first quasit at 14, and as she approached adulthood, began to use the fell powers at her disposal for personal gain. However, np amount of wealth or arcane power was enough; she ever lusted for more, too transcend the vessel of humanity and attain true might.

So, she cut off her hand.

Mind you, she had another hand ready and waiting-- the dexterous claws of an erinyes succubi-- which she grafted onto herself with a ritual dating back to ancient Thule. Since that day, Gemma–now known as Miss Stitches in occult circles-- traverses the oceansin search of arcane power and strange creatures from which she can derive new body parts. She has already replaced much of her body with new elements-- the teeth from a Balarian, the arm of a hellknight, the wings of a nightgaunt, the right eye of a portal fiend-- but there is never enough.

While she knows of Nightmist’s disappearance, Gemma also knows that some remnant of the mystic mistress may yet linger in her old sanctum… perhaps just enough for a wispy set of mistbound braids. And, if she can loot the sanctum for artifacts of power, so much the better…

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Villain of the Day:  September 21 (Jerem Kir'Tal)

The war on Dok'Thorath still simmers, like the water of a kettle just about to reach a boil.  Skirmishes between the remnants of Grand Warlord Voss' genebound nightmares, the jackbooted Thorathian military, and the various resistance fighters occur almost daily, with the average Thorathians caught in the crossfire.

This is nothing new.  Jerem Kir'Tal, now a lieutenant in the Thorathian resistance front, is far beyond tired of his planet's cycle of war.

One of the resistance's few powered members, Jerem worked alongside Porja Kir'Pro and several of the other heroes from Earth as they beat back the oppressive regime and the would-be usurpers.  Jerem's talents lay in energy distribution:  he could touch an energy source and wick away the pure power within, holding it within himself.  Then, he could touch an object and flood it with that stored up power, overloading it in a cascade of energy.  Jerem's abilities came in most handy on blackout raids, where he would drain a base of its electricity while resistance operatives would infiltrate and extract assets.  Similarly, his ability was most useful during demolitions runs, destroying bridges, spaceports, and other key infrastructure locations necessary to the Thorathian military.

But, one by one, all the heroes left Dok'Thorath.  The efforts made by the resistance slowed to a crawl, as the three warring factions drifted back into their usual routine.  Jerem watched as friends and family fell beneath lasgun fire and slashing ion blades.  Weariness and despair hung on him like a cloak of sorrow.  And, in that haze of gloom, Jerem found resolution.

Jerem intends to find the largest possible fusion reactor on Dok'Thorath and drain as much power from it as possible.  Then, he intends to travel to the deepest portion of the sulfanium mines south of Dok'Thorath city and release that power into the mineral veins that run throughout the planet's crust.  With that much energy coursing through the volatile mineral, Jerem calculates, the surface of Dok'Thoarth would become utterly uninhabitable within 6 galactic days.

A fitting fate, Jerem believes, for a people consumed by a petty war.

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Villain of the Day:  September 22 (Sweet Miss Coffee Brown)

That Black Fist?  He was one bad mutha-, layin' the funk down all across Rook City.  On a given night, you could be sure he'd be busting the heads of those what do wrong, then back in bed with a gorgeous honey by dawn.

Sweet Miss Coffee Brown, though?  She was the one that always got away.

Brown made her first appearance as Black Fist started in, hunting down the Big Man, who was pumping all sorts of junk through the 6th Ward of Rook City.  Black Fist had kung-fu kicked the doors down of at least six dealers, but no one was ready to give up the Big Man, no matter how hard the Black Fist laid the smackdown.  Then, just as Fist was leaving the last crackhouse, in walked a long-legged drink of hot Coffee, with a .45 in each hand.  Black Fist dove for cover as pistol slugs slammed into the stucco walls.  About that time, Black Fist beat feet, chasing down another lead on the Big Man.

Coffee Brown and Black Fist crossed paths a number of times over the years; each time, her motives seemed inscrutable.  While she claimed to have no allegiance to the Big Man, each time that Black Fist got just a little too close to finding out the truth and exposing the conspiracy, Coffee seemed to make another appearance.  Further, she always gave Black Fist a run for his money in a fight.  While she didn't seem to be a trained martial artist, her skill with those silver .45s and a natural street-fighter demeanor made her quite the challenge for the smooth-talkin', smooth-fightin' Fist.

The last time Fist and Coffee Brown came to blows was on the rooftop of the Taywood Holdings warehouse on Rook City's south side.  The pair traded banter and blows as Coffee's .45s clicked empty.  It was just then that Black Fist learned the one piece of the puzzle that Coffee Brown was holding back.

"He has my sister."

That was the last time Black Fist, nay anyone, ever saw Coffee Brown.  In his later identities as Sensei Walker and as Mister Fixer, Walker has searched off and on for Coffee Brown, though she's become a ghost in the wind.  And, of course, the Big Man is still out there...and what he knows about Coffee Brown may be the key to finding her.

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I am once again impressed. :D

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Villain of the Day:  September 23 (Dr. Niles Darrow)

Dr. Niles Darrow never intended on becoming a supervillain.  But, when the opportunity arose, he certainly didn't hesitate.

Darrow was one of the top professors at Cental Megalopolis University's physics program, teaching numerous graduate-level courses on wave harmonics and supervising the university's internship programs at Eaken-Rubendall Laboratories.  Darrow himself had a laboratory space not three doors down from his esteemed comrade, Dr. Meredith Stinson.  Darrow's primary research focus dealt with the usage of sonic wavelenths in the transmission of energy; his work contributed directly to the Particle Yield Enhancing Wavelength device, providing the sonic destabilizing device that initiates the yield enhancement cycle.

Dr. Stinson, of course, went on to become the noted hero Tachyon.  Darrow, however, found his funding cut and his internship program eyed for consolidation with another department.  Faced with such a drastic cutback, notable items started disappearing from the laboratory, finding their way into Darrow's own personal home laboratory. When this revelation came to light, though, Darrow railed against his accusers:  how dare they question him!  how dare they question all the progress he had made!

Darrow was placed on institutional suspension, but that night, his basement laboratory was awash with activity:  one final experiment that left Niles Darrow forever changed.

Whatever strange malfunction occured during Darrow's experiment altered his neural-network's homeostatic wavelength.  Darrow found himself able to manipulate vibrations on the molecular level; he could slow down molecular vibrations to the point where an object would lose cohesion; he could speed up those same vibrations until the object flew apart in a dramatic explosion.  And he himself?  He could vibrate straight through objects with ease, even through the police officers who came to investigate the flashing lights and cacaphonous noises.

Darrow has since gone on the lam, taking up refuge with whichever villainous organization is willing to make use of his services.  While Darrow himself doesn't hold much villainous ambition beyond completing his research and proving himself one of the world's intellectual elite.  But whoever gains use of Darrow's talents?  Surely no one could stand against such a vibrational onslaught...

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Villain of the Day:  September 24 (Finis, Expunger of Stars)

Captain Cosmic rarely leaves loose ends.  Finis, the Expunger may well become a forgotten foe capable of shaking the cosmos.

Finis was one of the few-hundred Gotolians who managed to evacuate their planet following the invasion of Grand Warlord Voss and his Thorathian fleet.  As a career military being, Finis served as one of the defenders of the now-refugee Gotolians, as they made their way to a refugee waystop to regroup and reorganize.  Unfortunately, the planet that the Gotolians chose was already under siege by Empyreon, who desired to consume the planet's core and soak in all that cosmic energy.  

Many of the Gotolians resigned themselves to defeat and destruction.  Finis felt otherwise.  Alongside some of his comrades and what few military-trained refugees he could find, Finis marshalled a ragtag fleet to engage Empyreon and drive him off.

That's when Captain Cosmic arrived.  With his old foe already engaged in siphoning off the planet's core, the Earth-bound hero joined the fleet in bombarding Empyreon with blasts of energy.  Unfortunately, most of those blasts only served to fuel Empyreon further, as the creature absorbed or deflected blast after blast.  And, it just so happened that one of Captain Cosmic's blasts richocheted off of Empyreon's form, slamming into Finis' ship.  As his craft exploded around him, Finis cursed his luck under his breath and his body drifted through the void of space.

Finis drifted for months, if not years, his frozen body slowly absorbing the energy from the conflict and all manner of other cosmic radiation.  Then, most unexpectedly, he woke up.

His body streaming with blue-gray light, Finis found himself bereft of any memory, save his destruction.  He recalled the red-and-gold fiend whose blast destroyed his ship.  He remembered the destruction of his homeworld, the annihilation of his people.  Surely that infernal "Captain Cosmic" was the cause of their deaths, much as he was responsible for attacking Finis himself.  He would have vengeance; his people would be avenged with the blood of an Earthling.

Since that day, Finis has tracked Captain Cosmic across the spaceways, traveling from planet to planet.  Each location to which Finis tracks Captain Cosmic's energy signature, Finis utilizes his "anti-light" manipulation to extinguish the star in that system, signaling the ultimate failure of Captain Cosmic's inscrutable motives and that the flame of Gotolis could not be forgotten so quickly.  Never mind that Finis, known as the "Expunger of Stars," has caused the death of numerous species on his own; Captain Cosmic would pay for his crimes.

However, only in recent days has Finis managed to find the one key piece of information that has eluded him thusfar:  Captain Cosmic's own homeworld.  Surely, Finis would find some way to repay the Captain in kind...

 

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Villain of the Day:  September 25 (Osteos)

Dr. Ramon Acosta Avalos traveled to many places throughout his career as an osteopathic surgeon.  One of the preeminent doctors in his field, Avalos's expertise was sought in case after case, in trauma after trauma.  There never seemed to be any shortage of individuals who were in need of the services he could provide.

This is not to say that Avalos was infallible.  Despite a stellar record with trauma cases, Avalos did have a number of fatalities on his case load.  Most notably, he found himself called on emergency to Lima, where a young homeless girl was struck by a bus, shattering most of the bones in her skeletal system.  However, by the time that Avalos had scrubbed up and entered the arena, the poor girl was already flatlining.  There was little Avalos could do but deliver her his condolences to the poor foul who brought the girl in the first place.

Avalos, however, found his services in particular demand following the Deadline disaster and the attacks on Fort Adamant.  And, it just so happened that one one of those occasions, he was exposed to the blood of a latent Omega...

That evening, finally getting back to his penthouse apartment, something began to shift within him.  His body twitched and shifted; it was as if his very bones wanted to escape his body...

Two days later, a strange man(?) appeared on the streets of Megalopolis.  While it looked like Avalos--albeit a ragged, harried version of Ramon--heroes quickly found that he had become something of a rampaging monstrosity, capable of tearing out shards of his own bones to use as weapons, while also manipulating and wrenching the skeletal structures of his foes.  At least four civilians and three police officers were incapacitated with gruesome injuries before any of the Sentinels of Freedom arrived, but by that time, Osteos had already made its escape on spindly, skeletal legs.

Since that day, Osteos has made a number of appearances, most often attempting to steal medical technology or various medical records.  For some strange reason, he seems focused on that cold case back in Peru and finding out the identity of that unnamed little girl...

469

Villain of the Day:  September 26 (Shutterbug)

Joseph King was once the undisputed "King of the Capes".  A supers-chaser par excellence, The Megalopolis Examiner was never short of candid shots of the city's biggest heroes, whether it was Paul out by the grill, Meredith and Dana out for a night of Turkish food, or Tyler looking lonely at the laundromat at 2am.   No matter the issue, you could be sure that Joseph King would have a fresh set of pictures on A. Aaron Aaronson's desk every week.

Then Guise happened.  A piano fell, some produce exploded, and Christmases came and went.  Somehow, photography seemed the least of Joseph King's concern.  The Megalopolis Examiner, though, elected to search elsewhere.

Enter Alfie Everts.  A trained photographer and one-time war correspondent, Alfie was used to snapping solid, salable pictures in the harshest of environments.  He'd been everywhere from Beirut to Bogota and was looking for a new thrill.  So, he signed an exclusive deal with the Examiner.  And, naturally, the first hero that Alfie managed to snap was Guise...as he was being smashed into a puddle of goo by a giant radioactive iguana.

The photos of Guise's "fight" against the iguana were, to say the least, not flattering.  And, once they made the front page ("Below the fold!  Hacks!") of the Examiner, Guise had to make his displeasure known.  He stormed into the Examiner's office, slammed the paper down onto A. Aaron Aaronson's desk and began an incoherent diatribe about "his best side" and how the Examiner was peddling yellow journalism.

Aaronson smiled and lit up a cigarette as an old-timey flashbulb flared in Guise's eyes.  

"How about this for a headline, Triple-A:  'Ranting Renegade Wrecks Reporters' Room!  Guise Goes Gonzo!"?

Alfie Everts stood smiling, the flashbulb still flickering in Guise's twinkling eyes.  The editor-in-chief guffawed out loud, clapping a hand on Alfie's shoulder, "That's a good one, Shutterbug! I'm gonna have to keep you around!"

Guise, his usual mature self, stormed out, knocking several papers off of desks as he clomped his way out of the room.  Since that day, Alfie Everts--The Irrepressable Shutterbug--has been a thorn in his side every step of the way, seemingly have a sixth sense on where to find Guise at his most embarassing, most humiliating points.  Sure, Alfie managed to find his share of other heroes in various candid shots--his shot of Expatriette and Setback kissing made international headlines!--but Alfie always saved his best, most mortifying work for Guise.  And Alfie will never let Joe King hear the end of it...

470

Villain of the Day:  September 27 (The Last Denizen)

The remnants of the Citizens of the Sun have always been a thorn in the side of the world's heroes, especially Amanda Cohen.  If the killer known as The Last Denizen has his day, the sun will set on all those former Citizens for the last time.

The first noted death attributed to The Last Denizen came in Kansas.  Local authorities had recovered a body, staked out in the midst of a dessicated, withered cornfield, with both severe burns and puncture wounds.  After a police medical examiner began an autopsy, the identity of the dead woman became quite clear:  Citizen Autumn.  Both the Sentinels of Freedom and Dark Watch were notified immediately, with Heritage deferring to Amanda's expertise.

Upon arriving, Expatriette couldn't help but note:  this cornfield (the dead stalks and withered fields notwithstanding) was quite familiar.  It was, in fact, the very same cornfield where she took her first life:  poor Citizen Gate, who teleported Amanda away from Insula Primalis so many years ago.  Assessing the crime scene, it appeared that Autumn's death occured within feet of where Expatriette herself emerged into that cornfield through Gate's portal.

The death would be strange enough on its own; coupled with the intimate details of Expatriette's origin, the results became downright harrowing.

However, Autumn's death was only the beginning.  Over the next five years, on the anniversary of Expatriette's arrival in the United States, another former Citizen died.  Each time, the body was covered in severe wounds, though the cause of each victim's death seemed to stem not from the burns, but rather two puncture wounds delivered to the the abdomen, one just below the other, directly below the sternum.

To date, The Last Denizen has yet to actively target Expatriette, though the fact that the Denizen seems to have access to her innermost, never-told-to-anyone memories has been disconcerting to say the least.  Expatriette has gone so far as to have her mind scanned for any sort of psychic interference but, to date, none have been found.  How The Last Denizen accesses her memories seems to be the greatest memory of all.

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Villain of the Day:  September 28 (Torpedo)

Major Erica "Torpedo" Dodd was meant to be the new paradigm of modern warfare.  A benchmark never to be exceeded, if you will.  She never made it quite that far.

After Revocorp had turned down General Armstrong for inclusion of their designs into the Bunker paradigm, the military was forced to look elsewhere to 'keep up with the neighbors'.  Enter "Barrage"--a project created between a joint US Air Force program and the Blackstock-McCalley arms corporation.  Inspired by her classmate (and chess team colleague) Randall Butler, Erica elected to serve her country this program.

At first, the invasive implantation process seemed to be too much for Erica's body to handle.  Despite being in peak physical form, her body attempted to reject several of the subcutaneous implants that provided the necessary hardware to keep her augmented nervous system online.  Within the first two months following her initial surgery in the Barrage program, Erica spent six weeks comatose, as surgeons dosed her body with antibiotics and other chemicals, hoping to get her body to accept the implants.

They succeeded.  Partially.

When Erica awoke, her body immediately went into a frenzy.  Weapons systems came online, targeting displays appeared in her vision, and every sinew and cable in her augmented frame turned to defense mode.  She could recall going under the knife, she could recall joining the military, but her memory seemed hazy and her emotions became volatile, resting on the proverbial edge of a knife.  

If the Barrage protocols were implemented properly, the result would have undoubtedly been superior to that of Revocorp's.  The weapons array built into Torpedo's chassis was capable of generating bio-electrical shielding, autotargeting micromissiles, blasts of focused ambient solar energy and much more.  However, the mental damage suffered by Erica coupled with her body's continued rejection of the Barrage implants made the project one more for the scrap heap, relegated to the skunk works at Black Site Tango.

Torpedo, though?  She's gone AWOL.  Numerous thefts have been reported, regarding bio-mechanical implants, military-grade software, and other components that Erica might need to 'upgrade' herself.  And, as one might figure, each time a theft is reported, Torpedo has some new, unique power.  However, her body continues to degrade as she has yet to find any real way to keep her organic form from completely rejecting her metallic one.  But, at this point, there's no going back.  She's already made the queen's gambit...

472

Villain of the Day: September 29 (Omnitron 11)

It first appeared on a UStream video.

A strange video, made up of garbled audio amid images that flashed between colors and hexadecimal code, started making the rounds through the Internet, spawning everything from reaction videos ("Watch what Aunt Betty does at 3:48!!") to spinoff tributes to outright reply vids. At the fate of publication, the video labeled Omnitron 11 had over 18 million hits, including 8 million unique downloads.

UStream administrators immediately attempted to take down the videos, but each attempt to delete the video resulted in two identical repostings under obviously bot-created usernames. Of course, the Sentinels of Freedom were contacted posthaste. Despite a great deal of investigation, few leads have drawn up any conclusions regarding the veracity of Omnitron 11. The Wraith and Unity traced one reposting to the home of computer programmer Sarah Hagens, only to find that Hagens had died in a freak auto accident three months prior. Something similar occurred with systems analyst Morgan Mayer; he was found dead of a fentanyl overdose in a Megalopolis park not long after his repost of the Omnitron 11 video.

To date, the video itself seems to have had no truly harmful effects and appears to simply be the work of a hacker or performance artist, gaining views and hits by using a famous name. But if not? Three world may be watching an all digital destruction...

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Villain of the Day:  September 30 (Remember)

No attack from the villain calling herself Remember has ever been a solo effort.  If theories surrounding Remember's power-set are to be believed, that's entirely by design.

Remember first appeared on the streets of Megalopolis, attacking Absolute Zero and several new heroes along the James Madison Bridge.  While Remember roamed about, severing suspension cables with an industrial laser cutter, the group approached her from a tactical position, surrounding her as Mister Enigma offered her a chance to stand down.  Ryan Frost stood by, letting his apprentices take charge of the situation, as Remember locked eyes with his facemask.  

She smiled.  And a host of Proletariats poured out of the back of a nearby box truck.

Strangely, though, these Proletariats seemed quite different from every other encounter that Absolute Zero had faced against the Soviet super-soldier.  Rather than using organized battle-tactics, these clones simply swarmed, rending with fist and tooth more than making calculated hammer strikes.  They showed none of the absorption and healing ability of their predecessor; only a never-ending flow of clones pouring forth like water from the box truck.  Finally, as each of the apprentices landed a blow, the targeted Proletariat seemed to dissipate, as if they were a mirage or an illusion.  

Not long after this incident, yet more were reported:  Remember appeared in the Ruins of Atlantis, where Time-Slinger and Harpy attempted to replace the Atlantean artifact that they had utilized during the OblivAeon event.  There, gathering up a series of Atlantean lore crystals, was Remember...and, within seconds, a host of swarming kraken tentacles and snapping beaks.  Later, Remember was sighted again in the remnants of the quarantined Omnitron IV factory; when confronted by Bunker and Benchmark, the skies parted, only to reveal the massive form of an Omnitron drop-ship, with legions of drones falling from the sky.

While it has yet to be determined whether Remember's abilities are arcanely inspired, created from science, or are of some psychic variety, but the results seem to be the same:  Remember reaches into a target's psyche and conjures an illusory form of how that individual pictures their worst foe.  For Absolute Zero, the memory focused on the never-ending swarm.  For Time-Slinger, it was the dangerous tentacles and devouring maw.  For Bunker, it was the skies overlowing with Omnitron drones, accompanied by blasts of disintegrating energy.  While the illusory creatures fought savagely, they possess little durability and seem to serve more as distractions as Remember chases down her own unseen agenda.

If only someone could Remember who she truly is...

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And that brings us to an end for the September to Remember!

Starting tomorrow, we get into the spirit of the season:  October is Monster Month!  Whether created by mad science, drawn from the depths of antidiluvian time, or conjured by some mystic master, October will feature monstrous foes sure to scare!

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...Proletariat attacking with teeth? That's kind of horrifying all by itself. @_@

475

Yup!  

The whole thing with Remember is that she summons a psychic projection of how a target views that ‘worst-enemy’.   They’re not ever going to be true to form, as they’re filtered through the lens of Remember’s victim’s memory.  The projections likely will seem more horrific and tend to focus on singular, overstated features (whatever stands out most in that victim’s memory).

476

With a September to Remember in the books, it's time to do the Monster Mash!  October will feature all manner of creatures that go bump in the night, whether created by magic, science, or something else entirely.  With that...

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Villain of the Day:  October 1 (Invirodan)

The road to hell has always been paved with good intentions.  If Invirodan is any herald of things to come, we may be well on our way to the underworld.

Invirodan had its origins at the Institute for Virus Research at Kyoto, where Dr. Yushio Sawa and his team of virologists, genetic engineers, and microbiologists worked ceaselessly to rid the world of infectious viral diseases.  Their most notable project to date has been their manipulation of a bacteriophagic retrovirus, adjusting the virus' structure to actively hunt down and destroy human T-cell leukemia virus organisms. 

While the group's inital practical trials proved to be more than successful, Yushio-san's vision outstripped his caution.

Long an advocate of using low-level beta wave radiation to accellerate the growth factor in retroviruses, Yushio made a dire choice.  He adjusted a single coefficient in his team's regular radiation bombardments, turning what should have been a miniscule amount of radiation into a dosage typical of sitting directly underneath a solar flare.

While this dosage killed nearly all of the virus cells, the creature that emerged alive was one of horrors.  A dog-sized, spider-like virus cell clattered its way through the lab, draining anyone it could manage to grab of its genetic material, stripping it down into its fundamental RNA and growing in size.  Within two hours, the virus-creature was as big as a house, crashing out the Institute laboratories and skittering its way towards downtown Kyoto.

Japanese police and military immediately engaged the creature, but it wasn't long until the Sentinels of Freedom (alongside the size-changing Japanese hero Issun-Boshi) engaged the creature.  Swiftly, Invirodan was driven into the nearby Lake Biwa.  Unloading a series of Tachyon-designed anti-viral grenades, Bunker was particularly critical in destroying Invirodan, exploding its crystalline head and felling the creature into the lake.

Even still, rumors still swirl around Lake Biwa of dog-sized virus creatures skittering about the lakeside parks, catching lone joggers and homeless individuals unawares.  Perhaps, just perhaps, Invirodan was only the first form of something new mutating beneath the lakes at Kyoto.

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And you start monster month with a legitimate kaiju. XD Well done.

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Villain of the Day:  October 2 (The Sins of Greenbrooke)

Greenbrooke Village is about as nice a place as you could ever want to live.

An idyllic New England village in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains, Greenbrooke is home to just over 2,000 individuals.  Kids play basketball and street hockey on the side streets, and the main drag through town is home to a lovely downtown district, complete with a two-screen bijiou, a number of family-owned specialty stores, and Gramma Pearl's All-Nite Diner, where the cherries in the pie are as big as a ping-pong ball. Each fall, Greenbrooke hosts a glorious Fall Festival and Cider Tasting, wherein folks come from all across the region to enjoy carnival food, cups of delicious cider (both hot and cold!), and the crisp fall air.  Any visitor to Greenbrooke would certainly attest to the town's cleanliness and great atmosphere, as well as to the friendliness and warmth of the citizens of the town itself.

After all, it's not like the people of Greenbrooke had any choice.

In decades prior, Greenbrooke had been just another Rust-Belt town left to languish as industry left for overseas and poverty skyrocketed.  Crime--mainly in the form of theft and the drug trade--made the region borderline unlivable.  The village council members met one fateful fall evening, their board room all but deserted, aside from Charles Edward Larrick (the resident 'complainer', who made it a point to attend every meeting, and a tall, thin woman with sharp features, whom no one in the room could recognize.  She sat alone, in the back corner of the room, as the council ran through the usual items of their minutes, making sure that Larrick had plenty of time for his usual 'rant and rave' about the state of Greenbrooke.

At the end of Larrick's screed, the woman stood up, "Permission to ask a question, council members?"  Chairman Cooley nodded, gesturing to the floor as the woman continued, "I believe I have a revitalization plan.  There is a cancer that eats at the moral soul of Greenbrooke, which erodes you and keeps you from true greatness.  This filth pollutes you, it taints you...and I can take it all away.

The council members sat, enraptured by the woman's words...all but Larrick, who rose in protest.  With a single wave of her hand, Larrick's mouth sealed over, a swath of new-grown skin covering the entire lower half of his face.  As Larrick clutched at the spot where his mouth once was, the woman continued.

"I can cleanse you of this sin.  I can cleanse you of all your ills.  All you need to do is follow me..."

The woman led the group (minus, Larrick, who cowered away, clutching at his non-mouth) out into the streets.  As she led the council down Main Street, doors along the street started opening.  As if in a trance, one citizen after another began following the group, until the whole of the town arrived at the town's outmost limits.  There, the woman reached down and lifted a manhole cover, exposing the entrance to the city's sewer system.  

Entranced, Chairman Cooley stepped forward, possessed of an overwhelming urge to vomit.  As he retched over the manhole, the woman's eyes flashed green and Cooley expelled nearly a gallon of viscous black filth into the manhole.  One by one, the entire town expelled this filth into their sewers; as each person finished, they found themselves brought to tears of joy, as if years of weight had been lifted from their conscience.  As dawn broke over the town, the woman smiled, "Go now, and sin no more..."

Since that day, Greenbrooke has been a paradise.  Sheriff Ramsay hasn't made an arrest in years, spending most of his days draining the coffee at Gramma Pearl's and chatting with the locals as they come by.  Occasionally, there's a rumbling deep beneath the street, but Gerry Gordons (the state geologist) says it's just a minor fault line rumbling away far beneath the town.  Surely it couldn't be something as fanciful as all those sins, ready to drown Greenbrooke in a tidal wave of filth and evil and sin.

And meanwhile?  The only person who didn't lose their sins that day, Charles Edward Larrick has disappeared.  Children and teenagers, wandering out in the woods outside of Greenbrooke, often tell stories of The Mouthless Man who lurks out in the woods, trying to steal their teeth, so that he can rebuild his missing mouth.  But, in truth, he may be the only one ever to admit what befell Greenbrooke that fateful night.  And would anyone ever dare go back?

479

Villain of the Day:  October 3 (Mount Shasta)

The locals never gave Mount Shasta a second thought.  Just another mountain, with the typical hiking paths, scenic views, and camping spots.  Only the few crackpots who dared explore the mountain fully knew even fragments of the truth.

The local native tribes, known collectively as the Klamath, had their own legends about Mount Shasta.  Skell shamen and wise women told of the being known as the Skell, who was cast down from some far-off land and buried beneath the mountain iteself.  Skell, they said, had fought the "spirit of the Below-world", known as Llao, who entombed Skell's spiritual form within the stone and earth of the mountain itself.

Most people gave the Klamath no heed and, as California was settled and populated, the native people became as much of a legend as the stories of Skell and Llao.

Those stories became dormant until the turn of the 20th century, where explorer and author Frederick Spencer Oliver returned from the mountain's summit, babbling incoherently and bearing a scrawled mess of notes.  After being institutionalized for nearly 9 months, Oliver managed to piece together his notes....and nearly earned his way into another session of mandatory institutionalization with his deranged findings.

Oliver claimed that Mount Shasta was, in fact, alive:  wending through the tunnels and caverns within the mountain, Oliver stated that the mountain itself would shift and writhe beneath his footfalls, leading him into the most precarious passes and atop terrifying cliffs or at the bottom of great chasms.  The stalactites and stalagmites of the caverns formed gnashing maws, while flowstone formations burst into brackish limewater.

However, the deeper in darkness which Oliver roamed, the more strangeness that he found.  At the innermost depth, the explorer claimed, was a massive gateway covered with strange runes.  Gazing within, he could see an idyllic city, buzzing with activity and power.  Within, strange creatures loped and cavorted; Oliver was convinced that he had rested his gaze on lost Lemuria.

Oliver documented his findings quite thoroughly and, as such, Mount Shasta has become a magnet for all manner of weirdness over the decades.  The would-be psionicist Wisar Cerve claimed to have received strange postcognitive abilities after holding a vigil in the twisting passages, while others have claimed that a man claiming to be the Comte de St. Germain (the long-dead 8th Merlin, who died of arcane exposure while slaying the Fenris Wolf) wanders the surface.

The best known expedition into Mount Shasta was that of prospector and miner John Root, who was set to lead a team of 80 into the depths of mountain.  However, on the night before the expedition, Root left the encampment and began scaling the mountain's slopes.  He never returned, and the expedition foundered before it ever started.  However, Root's second in command and financier, Reginald Cowdray, later received a strange letter, written in Root's handwriting.

In runes that Cowdray could not read--runes later translated by 20th Century sorcerer Eckhard Mordiggan--there was a simple message: "Skell, Titan of Lemuria, holds court here.  None will pass through to the world below without its sanction."

480

Villain of the Day:  October 4 (Mike on the Bike)

If you drive through Hafter's Woods, just north of Rook City, the darkness and oppression of the city below seems to only compound the isolation of the forest.  Two-lane roads tangle through the thick forest, with snapping curves eager to take the unwary driver over the edge, careening down the hillside or, worse, into the Overbrook River.

But everyone around Rook City knows:  If you're driving through Hafter's Woods, don't ever pass a bicyclist at night, if you value your life.  Only a fool tries to pass Drowned Mike, the Man on the Bike.

Like so many stories go, a group of teenagers were Mike's first victims.  A cool October night, the group was celebrating a high school football win with a late-night joyride deep through Hafter's Woods, on their way to some secluded pull-off where shenanigans could be had.  Brock, the driver, had his car cranked up past 75, whizzing along the curves with abandon.  Eliza, his date, caught a glimpse of a red reflector ahead of them and made to shout a warning, but it was too late:  Brock's convertible clipped the Schwift bicycle with his bumper, sending the shadowed rider plummetting over the guardrail and down the hill, out of sight.

Brock pulled over the car as his passengers screamed bloody murder.  What should they do?  Brock and Eric scanned the hillside with their phones as Miranda tried desperately to calm down Eliza, who could only gape at the bent frame of the bicycle, crumpled at the side of the road, and the blood covering the guardrail.

The teens searched for almost an hour.  No body could be found.  Eric moved the bike off the side of the road, as Brock gathered some brush with which to cover it up.  Cold and forlorn, they clambered back into the convertible and shakily started heading back home.

That's when Eliza first saw it.  Behind them, the lone, pedal-powered headlight of another bicyclist.  Brock's eyes flashed back in the rear-view mirror disbelievingly.  It was 2am.  Who's out biking at 2am?

That's when the bicyclist raced towards them, pedaling at a speed impossible by any standards.  She screamed once more and yelled to Brock, "Go!  Faster!"  Glancing back, Brock shifted up, his engine roaring even as the simply bicycle kept gaining on them.  Pulling up beside the convertible, a meaty, grimy fist slammed onto the drivers' side windown.  Brock turned as the fist burst through his window, grabbing at his steering wheel and yanking it sharply to the side.

Miranda, supposedly, got the best look at the figure:  grimy and unwashed, he had the wet, tangled hair of a vagrant, his brow soaked in dried blood.  He hissed through broken teeth, jagged and rotting, "Faster!  Faster, kiddies!"  As if on command, Brock's foot slammed down, trying to hit the brake but, instead, flooring the accelerator.  The convertible screamed through the night and careened over the edge of the curve, crashing through tree and branch as the car plummeted down into the Overbrook River.  The last thing Miranda saw was the patch sewn onto the man's work-shirt:  "Hello, My name is Mike!  Can I help you?"

Rook City Recovery and Works Department needed almost 14 hours to pull Brock's car--and the four bodies within--from the muck and mire at the bottom of the river.  A funeral service was held, but word started spreading soon of a broken bicycle and the body of a homeless man found not far from the crash site.  What had those teenagers done?  Could something nefarious be afoot?

Since that day, tales of Mike on the Bike have become one of Rook City's most infamous urban legends, especially throughout the city's high schools.  Teenagers will dare each other to race through Hafter's Woods or, worse yet, to take their own midnight bike-ride through those infamous curves.  Very few have the nerve to test the veracity of the legend...