The History of Venture Comics!

[FrivYeti]

Randomizers:
Approach: 7, 2, 6 [Options: Skilled, Disruptive, Focused, Mastermind, Specialized, Creator]
Archetype: 10, 3, 2 [Options: Inventor, Bruiser, Overlord, Squad, Legion, Fragile]
Upgrade: 7, 11, 9 [Options: Quality Upgrade I, Calming Aura, Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 1, 12, 5 [Options: Annihilation, Malice, Mad Science]

Timekiller

Real Name: Oscar Curbelo, First Appearance: Stutter #7, Sep 2019
Approach: Mastermind, Archetype: Bruiser
Upgrade: Calming Aura, Mastery: Annihilation

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 40+5H
Qualities: Banter d10, Imposing d8, Finesse d8, Fitness d8, Alertness d8, Improvise d8
Powers: Absorption d12, Intuition d10, Intangibility d8

Abilities:

• Power Is Everywhere [A]: Boost yourself using Fitness and use your Max die. Either make that bonus persistent and exclusive, or Boost yourself again using your Min+Mid dice.
• Love A Good Monologue [A]: Hinder all opponents that can see or hear you using Banter. Boost yourself using your Max die.
• Pay It Back [A]: Attack using Absorption. If you are Green status, use your Max die. If you are Yellow status, use the Max+Min dice. If you are Red status, use Max+Min against one target and Mid against another.
• Out of Synch (I): Reduce physical and energy damage by 1 while in the Green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, and 3 in the Red zone.
• (U) Dream State (I): The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, access to abilities, and for the purposes of all abilities. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Absorption die.
• (U) Master of Annihilation (I): If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome where a show of overwhelming force can solve the problem.

Common Scene Elements:

• Fracture Point. This environment is beginning to show time fractures from overuse of temporal absorption, creating unpredictable hinders and spawning small paradox-monsters.
• Well-Paid Bodyguards. d8 minions. Bodyguards get +1 to Defend allies.
• Paradox Replicators. d8 minions. Each group acting rolls a single action with a bonus equal to the number of minions taking it.

While paradox monsters began preying on the people of Ferristown, a new threat was growing in the shadows. Stutter’s investigation of fractured time led her to a new startup company called “Glozzle”, which advertised that it was undergoing medical research in the hopes of developing immortality. Glozzle’s CEO, Oscar Curbelo, had no technical knowledge to speak of, but he was a smooth-talking hype man who had successfully parlayed a small family fortune into a massive media empire, which he was now spinning off to create the medical dreams of the future. Glozzle was working on a new serum, “Rewind”, which Curbelo believed could literally reverse entropy, causing genes to become younger with each dose. When early lab tests proved positive, he became convinced that it was successful, and started to take the serum himself.

As it happened, Rewind had a few critical side effects, the most important of which was a dependency which, if not met, caused the user to start unravelling time around themselves, absorbing entropy itself and reversing it across a wide area, and causing people to lose track of the nature of cause and effect. Oscar was overcome by the effect, falling into a dreamlike state and killing his lead researcher, seemingly convinced that nothing mattered and he could do whatever struck his fancy in the moment. Stutter responded to the growing chaos as more people were pulled into his temporal vortex and started acting on impulse with no concern for what might happen next, stopping the CEO from committing more murders and succeeding in burning through his stores of anti-entropy until his powers faded. However, she didn’t succeed in unmasking him, and while she was convinced that Glozzle was responsible, she had no proof yet.

In the aftermath of the issue, it was revealed to readers that despite what he’d claimed, Oscar had full memories of what had happened, and was now addicted to the rush of power he’d gained. He began experimenting with Rewind further, committing crimes ‘just to kill time’, and leaving more broken futures in his wake…

Behind the Scenes

Stutter gets one monster outside of time, and one monster who’s all too human. Timekiller doesn’t really have a bold, grand motivation - he tries an experimental thing because he thinks it’s neat, he kills people because it’s fun, and he loves being powerful so much that he just keeps doing it. His storyline likely ends with him unmasked and jailed, or possibly even killed by Stillmaker, but in the mean time he’s a serious threat to the city, with the resources to cover his tracks.

Timekiller’s Calming Aura works by convincing everyone that actually, things are fine because explosions and deaths have no long-term consequences. He devastates the area, laughing the whole time, and everyone in his path plays along because hey, nothing matters, it’s all fine. It’s only afterwards that the price becomes clear. Mechnically, he spends the early scene boosting himself up, then takes out whoever he feels like and lets chaos reign. No grand design, no profit motive, he’s just in it for the kicks.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@FrivYeti

…a new startup company called “Glozzle”…

Amusingly, that’s a real-world brand of cleaning supplies and a 3D puzzle game on IOS. Presumably those are made by subsidiaries.

[FrivYeti]

@Chief_Lackey_Rich

Amusingly, that’s a real-world brand of cleaning supplies and a 3D puzzle game on IOS. Presumbaly those are made by subsidiaries.

Yeah, it is legitimately impossible to try to create a modern startup with a goofy name that doesn’t already exist. I just sort of gave up after five or six tries.

[TakeWalker]

hey, this guy’s just like quicksand leaking from my hand

[FrivYeti]

Randomizers:

Approach: 9, 5, 3 [Options: Prideful, Bully, Mastermind, Specialized, Tactician, Ninja]
Archetype: 1, 2, 2 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Bruiser, Guerilla, Legion]
Upgrade: 1, 7, 4 [Options: Mook Squad, Villainous Vehicle, Quality Upgrade I]
Mastery: 11, 2, 8 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Unfathomable, Profitabiltiy]

ScaVenger (II)

Real Name: Jacinda Lark, First Appearance: Earthwatch (Vol. 3) #8, Oct 2019

Approach: Prideful, Archetype: Predator
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Profitability

Status Dice: 0-1 Engaged Opponents: d10. 2-3 Engaged Opponents: d8. 4+ Engaged Opponents: d6. Health: 40+5H
Qualities: Technology d10, Conviction d10, Imposing d8, Close Combat d8, Nose For Profit d8

Powers: Metal d10, Robotics d10, Deduction d10, Electricity d8

Abilities:

• Grapple-Bot [A]: Hinder using Robotics. Use your Max die. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
• Makeshift Power Suit [A]: Boost yourself using Technology. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Defend using your Mid die against all Attacks until the start of your next turn.
• Shock Line [A]: Attack using Technology. Use your Max die. If the target has a penalty you created or is in the Red zone, use your Max+Mid dice instead.
• Shard Storm [R]: When a nearby hero rolls a 1 on one of their dice during their turn, roll your single Metal die as an Attack against them.
• (U) Rapid Assembly [A]: Replenish your animotors to the number of heroes.
• (U) Master of Profitability (I): I f 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 else pays the price.

Common Scene Elements:

• Animotors: (H) d8 minions. When an animotor would be destroyed or reduced in size, turn it into two d4 ‘Scrapwork’ minions instead.
• Scrapworks: (H+2) d4 minions. When Scrapworks roll a 1 when taking an action, treat the result as a 4 and then destroy them.
• A Technology-Heavy Location. An environment such as a trade show, lab, or armory with plenty of metal and technology to acquire.

The dominant theme of the first few Earthwatch storylines was that past sins might be forgiven, but they will not be forgotten. Many of the threats faced drew from the pasts of the heroes struggling for redemption, and in Earthwatch #8, Gale Force faced a menace from her own past - a brand-new, even more powerful ScaVenger!

The first ScaVenger had continued to fight various heroes after the cancellation of the Earthwatch book, and in 2017 she had been shot into space at the conclusion of Gale Force #26. The writers had intended to bring her back, but then the mandate came down to wrap things up, so in space she remained. Earthwatch instead introduced a new character, Jacinda Lark. Jacinda was retconned as having been a troubled teen who got a job henching for ScaVenger, using her unusual intuition for technology to help the supervillain with her devices. When ScaVenger vanished, Jacinda began gathering goods, slowly upgrading herself cybernetically and developing a reputation as an underworld armorer and grunt. Finally ready to strike out on her own, she decided to take on her lost mentor’s mantle, becoming the new ScaVenger and attacking a facility where old supervillain gear was sent to be safely disassembled.

ScaVenger’s primary goal was no longer revenge. Jacinda preferred to live in luxury, using supervillainy to fund her lifestyle. However, when the opportunity arose, she was more than happy to use that wealth against the people who had taken her mentor and idol away from her, unleashing her power against Earthwatch and turning an entire facility against them by taking command of its metal and shaping it into deadly robots. When Earthwatch defeated her, she managed to hide the fact that most of her cybernetics were internal, breaking out of jail by reshaping its security systems.

ScaVenger returned in Earthwatch #12, working a ritual to summon Azoth back into the world and making a pact with her for power, in exchange for attacking Earthwatch and delivering Merlin to the demon. Their short-lived alliance crumbled in Earthwatch #13 when Azoth wanted to finish the job and get the goods, and ScaVenger wanted to make the members of Earthwatch suffer, leading the two to separate to accomplish their goals individually and allowing Earthwatch a chance to take them down one at a time.

Behind the Scenes

Another legacy villain! Because the villains I’m writing up are generally the big, main nemeses of the heroes, there aren’t a lot of them who follow the “a new person taking up the mantle” that is quite common in Marvel and DC. This is only the third one I’ve created. But ScaVenger is too much fun to leave fallow, and a new one for a new team seems to make sense. Of course, the previous ScaVenger isn’t actually dead, so maybe one day she’ll come back. Will she be proud of her successor? No, probably she’ll be pissed, that’s more her style. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Mechanically, this is pretty straightforward. Technopathy plus physical control of metal and electricity means you’re never without a robot. The non-upgraded version of ScaVenger doesn’t do a lot of attacking; she deploys robots to divide the heroes while she boosts up, then she hits one person with a penalty and starts blasting them down. As an upgraded enemy, though, she can create a steady stream of minions if she runs low, and her signature minions break apart instead of blowing up so they’re a bit harder to clear out in one go.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@FrivYeti

Of course, the previous ScaVenger isn’t actually dead, so maybe one day she’ll come back. Will she be proud of her successor? No, probably she’ll be pissed, that’s more her style. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Given that her former hired goon is doing a better job of making a comfortable living through villainy than she ever did and doing it while using her supranym no less, pretty safe to assume Sally won’t be happy about it. I suspect Jacinda (assuming she survives the inevitable betrayal) will be pretty disappointed with her “idol” when they meet again. It wouldn’t surprise me if the two end up embroiled in a legal battle over the name as well as in a supervillain feud - with ScaVenger I getting distracted by declaring vendettas against various judges and lawyers involved in the process while ScaVenger II laughs all the way to the bank.

@FrivYeti

Animotors: (H) d8 minions. The first time an animotor takes damage in a scene, it turns into two d4 ‘Scrapwork’ minions instead of rolling a damage save.

As written, that really shafts heroic abilities that use a minion’s save for a rider effect to Attack another target, since there’s no save being taken. I think that’s avoided by rewording it like this:

Animotors: (H) d8 minions. The first time an animotor takes damage in a scene, it turns into two d4 ‘Scrapwork’ minions regardless of what it rolls for a damage save.

Whether you want to avoid that oddball interaction is up for debate, of course.

[FrivYeti]

@Chief_Lackey_Rich

As written, that really shafts heroic abilities that use a minion’s save for a rider effect to Attack another target, since there’s no save being taken.

Ooh, good point. Also, on the flip side, it interacts oddly with powers that destroy minions without a damage roll, which isn’t meant to be a free bypass, and also the “first time” rule isn’t actually needed because no animotor can take damage twice.

Okay, revised ability:
Animotors: (H) d8 minions. When an animotor would be destroyed or reduced in size, turn it into two d4 ‘Scrapwork’ minions instead.

[FrivYeti]

Randomizers:
Approach: 8, 7, 2 [Options: Skilled, Focused, Mastermind, Specialized, Adaptive]
Archetype: 10, 2, 4 [Options: Inventor, Guerrilla, Overlord, Squad, Legion, Titan]
Upgrade: 10, 3, 1 [Options: Mook Squad, Group Fighter, Calming Aura]
Mastery: 7, 3, 6 [Options: Conquest, Mercenary, Mysticism]

Malakim

Real Name: Sachiel the Giver, First Appearance: Starshadow #8, Oct 2019
Approach: Adaptive, Archetype: Overlord
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Mysticism

Status Dice: 9+ minions: d12. 5-8 minions: d10. 3-4 minions: d8. 1-2 minions: d6. 0 minions: d4. Health: 30+5H

Qualities: Leadership d10, Close Combat d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Voice of Heaven d8
Powers: Radiant d10, Flight d8, Presence d8, Strength d6

Abilities:

• Divine Power [A]: Boost using Presence and use your Max die. Attack with your mid die. Defend with your Min die.
• Holy Purpose [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.
• Empowered by Faith [A]: Roll all your minion dice and combine the result to Boost. Attack using Radiant and use that bonus.
• Direct the Faithful [A]: Boost using Leadership for all your minions until the start of your next turn.
• Shield of the Righteous [R]: Reroll any number of minion saves against the same Attack.
• Above This Fallen World [R]: When Attacked, Defend by rolling your single Radiant die. Also Boost yourself with the result of that die.
• (U) Radiant Revival [A]: Replenish the number of Vicars up to the number of heroes.
• (U) Master of Mysticism (I): If you have access to worshippers, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.

Common Scene Elements:

• Vicars: d8 minions. When Vicars receive a bonus from an ally, increase the final bonus by +1, to a maximum of +4.
• Bishops. D8 lieutenants. When Bishops Boost Vicars, they may apply the bonus to up to (H) nearby minions.
• A Grovedale Mob War. An environment spawning criminal minions who want to take out both Malakim and the heroes, and civilians caught in the crossfire.

While the Fomorians were the primary threat of Starshadow’s first year, she also had to deal with the occasional crime boss or conventional threat to her city. The most powerful, strangest, and popular of these wound up being Malakim, otherwise known as Sachiel the Giver.

Sachiel claimed to be an actual angel sent by the Lord to purify a fallen world, but this seemed to be contradicted by their methods, attitude, interactions with the world and basically every facet of their being aside from the image. Solace theorized that they were a dimensional energy being who had latched onto Christian imagery and built themselves a shape, but their exact nature was uncertain. What was certain was their system. They landed in Grovedale, determined that money was the root of all evil, and decided that this meant money should be taken away from the virtuous and given to evil people so that it would not cause any more damage. To that end, they quickly built a gang of worshippers willing to take the burden of money onto themselves, and embarked on a massive crime spree against banks and major businesses, promising their victims that they would be much happier once they were poor.

This didn’t go over very well with either major businesses or local crime groups, and Malakim quickly found themselves at the heart of a classic Grovedale gang war against several of Skybreaker’s classic foes. Everything became more complicated when Starshadow intervened and Malakim immediately declared that as a pagan minion of the shadows, she was the true villain and had to be defeated for the good of the world.

Malakim’s rampage was briefly stopped, but the angel’s Vicars intervened to save them, allowing themselves to be arrested to help their boss escape. Malakim retreated to begin rebuilding their criminal organization and preparing for the next battle, much more cautious now that they knew what they were up against.

Behind the Scenes

I just keep rolling the even dice. And as a result, we are full up on Overlords. I’ve made a lot of them in the Diamond Age, even if all three are very different in terms of how they play.

An angelic mob boss is just a very funny idea to me, especially one that appears to be devoted to being virtuous, except that they don’t really understand how virtue works so they’re just kind of muddling along and causing a ton of trouble based on a fundamental failure to get human nature and society. Malakim is pretty genial most of the time, which is good in a boss, but can also get kind of righteous at the wrong moments. Mechanically, they flip between protecting and buffing their minions, and charging in personally, adjusting their powers as necessary for the scene.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@FrivYeti

Direct the Faithful [A]: Boost using Conviction for all your minions until the start of your next turn.

Ummm…Leadership, maybe? He doesn’t have Conviction.

@FrivYeti

Real Name: Sachiel the Giver

Literally carrying a satchel, presumably full of cash. I see what you did there.

@FrivYeti

To that end, they quickly built a gang of worshippers willing to take the burden of money onto themselves, and embarked on a massive crime spree against banks and major businesses, promising their victims that they would be much happier once they were poor.

I imagine recruiting was pretty easy. How many times was Malakim convinced to back off and leave their targets alone when some quick-thinking executive explained that as representatives of late-stage capitalism and practitioners of usury they were already irredeemably evil and should, in fact, be the recipients of the gang’s loot rather than a source of it?

“Afraid we all sold our souls to Mammon years ago, Satch. Go rob some nice non-profit and you can make a ‘deposit’ with our branch when you get back. You want a tote bag to help carry the swag?”

Actually, now that I think about it, this group’s A-Number-One target ought to be every Prosperity Gospel church they can find, especially the big megachurches with the televised services. Steal their donations, rob their congregation, and loot the pastors’ mansions and safe-deposit boxes. From Malakim’s perspective they’re all preaching the very worst kind of heresy and it’s not like there won’t be plenty of loot to keep the vicars and bishops happy.

[FrivYeti]

Fixed Conviction for Leadership, yeah.

Business leaders could try to make that argument, but I think it would only work if they also agreed to join the ‘church’. They’re trying to concentrate all of the wealth in one place, after all. So essentially, you could end up in a bit of a protection racket situation where you’re working for the mob, only the mob in question is weird.

And I can definitely see a storyline in which Malakim robs a major prosperity gospel church, and Starshadow has to decide whether that’s really a crime.

[TakeWalker]

what a wacky direction XD

[FrivYeti]

Thanks!

Yeah, as one of the only heroes in Venture Comics to have an unbroken solo/family line from the dawn of the Silver Age to the dawn of the Diamond Age, the Skybreaker family are the ones who get both the grim, serious villains and the absolutely goofy ones. Starshadow 100% inherits that now that she’s the focal point of the comic, so she gets them too!

[FrivYeti]

Randomizers:
Approach: 4, 6, 4 [Options: Underpowered, Disruptive, Mastermind, Overpowered, Ninja]
Archetype: 2, 4, 4 [Options: Inventor, Guerilla, Overlord, Inhibitor, Titan]
Upgrade: 9, 2, 4 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Calming Aura, Hardier Minions]
Mastery: 4, 10, 1 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Mad Science, Total Chaos]

Madame Calamity

Real Name: Marianne Leblanc, First Appearance: Venture into the Unknown (Vol. 2) #9, Dec 2019
Approach: Ninja, Archetype: Titan
Upgrade: Villainous Vehicle, Mastery: Total Chaos

Status Dice: Begins at d12. Health: 50+5H (Upgraded 65+5H)
Qualities: Alertness d10, Close Combat d10, Stealth d8, Fitness d8, Enemy of Order d8
Powers: Size-Changing d10, Shapeshifting d10, Intuition d8, Vitality d8

Special Challenge:
[] []: Restrict Madame Calamity’s power, reducing her status by one die size.
[__]: Trap Madame Calamity at her current size, reducing her status by one die size.

Abilities:

• Change Scale [A]: Change Madame Calamity’s form and move her anywhere in the scene. Take a basic action using Size-Changing, using your Max die. This ability cannot be used if the special challenge is complete.
• Surprise Smash [A]: Attack using Close Combat, using your Max die against one target, your Mid die against another, and Min die against any target.
• Reactive Transformation [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling for your single Shapeshifting die. Boost yourself with the amount of damage reduced.
• (U) The Night Mare. Madame Calamity rides this terrible steed through dreams to pierce impregnable facilities. The Night Mare is a d10 lieutenant with three abilities:
  • Sturdy (I): When rolling a damage save, add 2 to the result
  • Aura of Fear (I): To attack the Night Mare, a hero must make an Overcome action in order to face it.
  • Infiltrate [A]: Take a basic action. You and one other target end up elsewhere in the scene.
• (U) Master of Total Chaos (I): If you are in a situation where everything is spiraling out of control, automatically succeed in an Overcome to accomplish a task by throwing out the rules.

Titan Form:

• No Vital Points (I): Reduce all damage taken by 6 (if you have a d12 status die), 4 (if you have a d10 status die), or 2 (if you have a d8 or lower status die.)
• Living Calamity [A]: Activate one of the environment’s twists in its current zone.

Infiltrator Form:

• Slippery Character (I): At the start of your turn, remove a penalty on you and restore one box of the Special Challenge. Heroes cannot Overcome to resolve the Special Challenge.

Common Scene Elements:

• A Populated Environment which Madame Calamity is dedicated to devastating.
• Local Support. D8 minions who can step down their die after rolling to add +2 to their result.
• A multi-step challenge to evacuate the area.

Venture into the Unknown mostly worked as a series of two-parters in its first year; Venturer would come to a new world, spend an issue learning about it and its problems, and then address those problems in the second part before being dragged to his next destination. The first four such locations all had the same rough structure - the world was a pocket dimension reflecting the world of Venture Comics, someone was trying to conquer them, and the heroes were in disarray or defeated. In Issue #9, however, a new twist threw the situation into chaos.

The story opened with a steampunk Paris, as a group of ‘stormguards’ searched for a mysterious thief. When they cornered her, she was revealed to be Marianne Leblanc - but instead of shapeshifting to distract them, she simply grinned, clenched her fists, and turned into a fifty-foot tall monster, obliterating the airship she had been infiltrating and sending wreckage raining down over the city. Venturer appeared just in time to save the Mayor of Paris from her rampage, using his mirroring to grow to a massive height and wrestle her towards the ocean.

Over the next two issues, however, it became clear that the Mayor was the threat that Venturer’s shadowy nemesis was using to conquer this world. He’d already wiped out the heroes of the realm, and was fitting the populace with control chips to use them as manual labour.

Madame Calamity wasn’t even a native of this realm - she was another interdimensional travellers, who had made deals with the fae of her pocket dimension to fight against the Nazis after experiments left her with the ability to transform into a monstrous state, only for her entire world to be burned down in the resulting war. She found Venturer, and warned him that someone was trying to align the subnarrative nature of a variety of pocket worlds. If successful, the worlds would collapse together, creating one unified dimension and releasing whatever was contained between them. To prevent that, Madame Calamity was willing to do whatever it took. She had seen what happened when worlds burned, and burning a few cities in retaliation was a small price to pay.

Venturer refused to believe that Calamity’s methods were necessary, and the two of them clashed as he looked for a way to defeat the Mayor without laying waste to Paris. In the end, he was narrowly successful, but the razor-thin margin of his victory left Madame Calamity convinced it was a fluke. She swore to him that she would not rest until matters were resolved - one way or the other.

The dimensional disaster proved to be wildly popular, and Madame Calamity re-appeared in World of Wonders #13, a three-parter set in another world that Venturer had previously liberated. The Animaster was attacking that world, trying to turn it into an outpost for his own activities, and the Drifter and Alchymia arrived to stop him; Madame Calamity once again served as a third pole to the conflict, smashing Animaster’s approach but uncaring about the fates of his conscripted soldiers.

Behind the Scenes

Evil alternate!

Well, sort-of evil. As is classic in comics, this is the alternate-universe character who stands against other bad guys, but also goes too far.

Obviously, I’ve given Madame Calamity a unique ability - the power to shift between being a human-sized threat and a giant monster. This ability gives her a different inherent in each form, but locks some of her best tricks behind being a giant monster. I think it will make for a fun action scene, especially if the players show up to fight a giant monster and suddenly the monster is gone and a woman is bolting through a window, only to explode back into monstrous size a couple of turns later and wreck a building.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@FrivYeti

[] []: Restrict Madame Calamity’s power, reducing her status by one die size.
[__]: Trap Madame Calamity at her current size, reducing her status by one die size.

@FrivYeti

(U) The Night Mare. Madame Calamity rides this terrible steed through dreams to pierce impregnable facilities.

Should be Anarchy, right?

@FrivYeti

Obviously, I’ve given Madame Anarchy a unique ability - the power to shift between being a human-sized threat and a giant monster.

Interesting approach. The closest I’ve come to it was a villain who showed up in his human-sized form and then got replaced in the scene by his Titan form when he powered up, but they had entirely separate writeups and it was a one-way change for him so no back-and-forth.

[FrivYeti]

Dammit, yes. As I mentioned, I started with Madame Calamity, but I didn’t like the sound of it. I’ll fix that.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

I don’t know, it doesn’t sound bad to me.

Pretty sure there’s a published villain in some webcomic (maybe Giant Girl?) called Calamity Dame, which is a fairly great bit of wordplay.

[Rabit]

Honestly, I’m with Rich: Madame Calamity sounds great to me. I especially like how it feels spoken out loud.

[FrivYeti]

Hm, interesting! My vocal issue was having a six-syllable name in which the first two syllables (Ma-DAM) rhyme with the second two (Ca-LAM) but then the last two are just there (I-TEE).

But if people like it, I might just go ahead and change it back, thereby avoiding any concerns over the misuse of anarchy as a term in a modern comic.

[FrivYeti]

Randomizers:

Approach: 1, 8, 7 [Options: Relentless, Focused, Mastermind, Specialized, Adaptive]
Archetype: 8, 3, 3 [Options: Bruiser, Formidable, Inhibitor, Domain, Fragile]
Upgrade: 2, 11, 10 [Options: Hardier Minions, Brainwashing Zone, Calming Aura]
Mastery: 3, 2, 8 [Options: Conquest, Behind the Curtain, Profitability]

Terracide

Real Name: Jekander Trall, First Appearance: Celestial Travels #971, January 2020

Approach: Specialized, Archetype: Domain
Upgrade: Hardier Minions, Mastery: Conquest

Status Dice: Based on environment minions, lieutenants, and/or challenges. 3+: d10. 1-2: d8. None: d6. Health: 50+5H (Upgraded 55+5H)
Qualities: Imposing d12, Deep Space Lore d8, Damyrian Xenobiologist d8
Powers: Animal Control d10, Awareness d8

Abilities:

• Distract for the Pack [A]: Hinder one target using Imposing and use your Max die. Attack that target using your Mid die.
• Swarming Tactics [A]: Attack using Xenobiologist against one target with your Max die, another with your Mid die, and a third with your Min die.
• Awaken Nature’s Wrath [A]: Activate one of the environment’s twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.
• Frenzied Rampage [A]: Roll any number of environment minion dice. Attack every target in the scene (other than yourself) with those dice. Remove those minions.
• Aura of Terror [R]: Defend against an Attack where you’re the only target by rolling your single Imposing die. One other nearby target takes an amount of damage equal to the damage reduced.
• Worldsinger (I): Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment’s turn.
• (U) Worldbreaker (I): When you activate the environment to create minions or lieutenants, step the die size of those minions up (to a maximum of d12.)
• (U) Master Conquerer (I): As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving seizing an area or capturing civilians.

Common Scene Elements:

• A City Overrun: An urban environment struggling with a massive invasion of hostile creatures from across the galaxy.
• Beast-tamers. D8 lieutenants. When Beast-tamers Boost animal minions, they may make the bonus persistent and exclusive.
• Monstrous Beasts. D10 lieutenants that act as environment targets. Monstrous Beasts get +2 to their damage saves.

While some Celestial Travels stories were smaller-scale, there was also room in the newly-revamped comic for the planetary threats and interstellar conquerers that the original Travellers had so often fought. While a few minor warlords were established in the opening issues post-timeskip, a new major threat was established in Celestial Travels #971 with the arrival of Terracide.

Jekander Trall was a Damyrian xenobiologist who had been heavily involved in their planet’s efforts to save endangered species from the threat of the World-Maggots three decades earlier. The alien scientist, however, saw a more profitable use for the technology, liberating and upgrading it to give them wide-scale control over animal biologies. With this weapon, they could turn a planet’s ecology against itself, overwhelming defensive fortifications and laying waste to industrial areas until the local government surrendered to them to ‘solve’ the problem.

Trall claimed to represent a sustainable future, with populations carefully managed and sentient and non-sentient life existing in harmony. Like most ecofascists, however, they had constructed a system in which all of the sacrifices were made by someone else, allowing them and their elite ‘beast-tamers’ to live lives of luxury at the expense of the worlds they deemed as lesser. Every species was assigned a position on the hierachy based on Trall’s own beliefs of its ‘fitness’, and the ‘lesser’ ones were oppressed and forced into harsh labor conditions for the benefits of the ‘greater’, with their populations managed as though they were beasts themselves.

Trall first came to the attention of the Travellers after Traveller Team Sixty-Eight was killed trying to protect a small planet from a mysterious outbreak of animal violence, with Trall bringing the colony under the umbrella of the Greenstar Federation for their ‘protection’. Traveller Team One responded to investigate, quickly realizing what Trall was doing, and led a covert action that disabled their control generators and allowed the Galactic Union to send troops to fortify the world against a new assault. It quickly became clear, however, that Greenstar was too entrenched for the Union to risk all-out war; they feared that doing so would lead to Terracide wiping out entire planets of civilians rather than cede them to the Union. The Celestial Travellers pledged to hold back Greenstar’s advance, and to find a way to overthrow Trall, but they knew that it would be a long battle ahead…

Behind the Scenes

Getting a good evil empire going to face off against the good one, and honestly ecofascism seemed like something that would be a solid topic for both the Venture universe and for the real world in 2019. It’s been a generation since the World-Maggots were defeated, which means that there are now settled refugee populations all over the galaxy, and fascists are not fans of that. Terracide thus acts as a full flip of our other resident Damyrian, Shockeye. Instead of being a good-hearted person who uses new technology to look for the best in others, they’ve developed a technology to hold planets hostage and command an empire.

Worldbreaker is a Domain-adjusted version of Hardier Minions, which also affects lieutenants but doesn’t affect any villainous minions being brought to the party. It also creates a nasty synergy with Frenzied Rampage, increasing the die size of a group of minions and then using them as a weapon to really wreck the area. Terracide alternates between pumping up the environment, and using their Animal Control and Imposing to attack enemies directly with whatever beasts they have on hand.

[TakeWalker]

Easily top three best character names you’ve come up with.