Plenty of opportunities in Washington DC shortly. Presumably he’s already puppeting Putin from behind the scenes.
1 Like
ahh, that’s a really cool story for the reboot and retcon 
1 Like
Swamp Rat
Real Name: Cora Farmer, First Appearance: Anima #2, Sep 1996
Approach: Leech, Archetype: Squad
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade II, Mastery: Malice
Status Dice: No other villains: d6. 1-2 other villains: d8. 3+ other villains: d10. Health: 20+5H (Upgraded 40+5H)
Qualities: Persuasion d8, Close Combat d8, Stealth d8, Flux Supremacist d8
Powers: Absorption d10, Burrowing d8, Presence d6
Abilities:
- Swamplurker [A]: Boost using Stealth. Boost another target using your Max die, and use your Min die to Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn.
- Energy Shift [A]: One ally makes a basic action now, using their Max die. They reroll all 1s they roll as part of this action.
- Field of Screams [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Absorption. Recover Health equal to your Min die. If you roll doubles, also Attack one of those targets using your Max die.
- Drain Elements [R]: When a bonus is used against you in an Attack or Hinder, you may first destroy that bonus. If you do, roll your single Absorption die and Recover Health equal to the roll plus the destroyed bonus.
- (U) Prove Yourself (I): Increase your Self-Discipline, Close Combat, and Stealth to d10.
- (U) Master of Malice (I): When you take an action to demonstrate or indulge in cruelty, automatically succeed at an Overcome to inflict pain or fear.
Common Scene Elements:
- Skyfire: A Focused villain who can wreathe himself in flames, fly, and dissolve into sparks.
- Undertow: A Bully villain that turns into a giant goo, who can dissolve things by turning acidic.
- Disaster Artist: A Disruptive villain that calls down storms and triggers earthquakes.
Following the end of Remnants in early 1996, there was a strong desire to find places for the more popular members of the team while they still had popular recognition. While Nightguard struggled to find a place after an abortive attempt to integrate him into the Twilight Carnival, Wildstyle was quickly shuffled into the Rogue Agents, and Alchymia was given her own series, Anima. The plan was for the series to focus on interactions between the growing Animate population and the people of Earth, who viewed them as just another type of alien.
A frequent tension for Alchymia in these stories was the suspicion other Animates held her in. Animates were only meant to have one element, and she wielded all four, drawing suspicion from those who still followed the Animaster’s ways. In response, she sought to prove that she was no different from her fellows, which was put to the test in the second issue of Anima with the introduction of the Flux.
The Flux were Animate supremacists, fellow rebels against the Animaster who believed that the problem with him was not that he was an authoritarian dictator, but that he was merely human, with no elements of his own. They built a philosophy that said that Animates were meant to wield multiple elements, and this power had been stolen from them by their putative master. Only by reclaiming it could they assert their dominance, and crush the humans underfoot.
The leader of the Flux was Swamp Rat. She had been a farmer in one of Animaster’s villages, until her secret power over water was revealed and Animaster tried to capture her for experimentation. Fleeing, Swamp Rat began to seek out other Animates who could draw on multiple elements, teaching them that they were the true inheritors and that the other Animates were merely pale shadows. Swamp Rat tried to make Alchymia the leader of the Flux, promising her an army to suppress the weaker elements. When Alchymia tried to convince her this wasn’t the path to take, she became enraged, calling Alchymia a traitor to her kind and seeking to destroy her along with the Animaster.
The Flux became a persistent threat to Alchymia’s attempts to bridge the gulf between her people and humanity, skilled with their powers and determined to undermine the process of peace. While Anima itself only lasted twelve issues, segueing into the grand five-issue Elemental Fury miniseries, Swamp Rat and her soldiers would continue to appear long afterwards, enemies of Alchymia’s new Animate nation and of the humans of Earth who had dared to create them.
Behind the Scenes
I wanted an Animate faction to add to Animaster’s situation, and this seemed like a good one. I like the idea that there are Animates who see a quirk that makes them stronger and decide that they are better, pre-emptively trying to conquer everything. They’ve learned the wrong lessons from their former master. There are definitely Flux who break away from this belief, and join Alchymia to build a better world, but there’s always people who want to be on the top of the heap.
Mechanically, Swamp Rat isn’t too dangerous, but she’s a bit of a puzzle villain. She bolsters the other villains on the field, tending to use her actions to give the person in the best position a boost or a free action, and she can pull apart most bonuses used to attack her, meaning it’s harder to one-shot her despite her relatively low health. In a pinch, she can transform a region into mud to slow heroes and recover health. You need to find the tricks to evade her powers to stop her.
4 Likes
great example of solid lore for a pocket setting 
1 Like
Paragon
Real Name: Qana, First Appearance: Champions of Truth #310, July 1998
Approach: Ancient, Archetype: Loner
Upgrade: Power Dampening Field, Mastery: Superiority
Status Dice: 0 other villains: d10. 1-2 other villains: d8. 3+ other villains: d6. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Fitness d12, Close Combat d12, History d10, Alertness d8, A Hole In Her Heart d8
Powers: Lightning Calculator d12, Vitality d10, Presence d10, Agility d8
Abilities:
- Ready for Anything [A]: Take a basic action using Lightning Calculator and use your Max die.
- Seen It All Before [A]: Attack multiple targets using Lightning Calculator. Hinder each target with your Max die.
- Better Than Your Best [R]: When you would be Hindered or when an Attack would reduce you to 0 Health, reduce the penalty to -1 or reduce that damage to 1.
- Endure (I): If you would be reduced to 0 Health and you don’t have a penalty, roll your single Vitality die and become that Health.
- (U) The Void Within (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ power dice at d8 or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ power dice at d10 or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ power dice are treated as if they are d4. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a power entirely until this ability is removed.
- (U) Master of Superiority (I): As long as you are using your Lightning Calculator, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of that power.
Common Scene Elements:
- A single fellow villain: Paragon often finds herself working reluctantly alongside someone to draw heroes out.
- A Hero’s Base: Paragon likes to hit you where you live.
When the Champions of Truth reformed with a more classic lineup in 1997, it was in part designed as a plan to take them back to their roots, facing classic foes and calling back old storylines in new ways. There weren’t many new villains introduced in the next few years, but one who both appeared and endured was Paragon.
Qana was a trueborn Atlatean, born thousands of years ago when the civilization was in its dying days. When the city sank beneath the waves at the behest of Balor, she was caught in the shockwave, burning out her telepathic abilities and leaving a mystical void in her soul as she watched everything she had ever known burn to ash in front of her. She didn’t know at first that any other Atlanteans had survived; without telepathy, she couldn’t contact the other survivors, and they didn’t know to look for her. Instead, she wandered. She went from village to village, living with other humans and learning their ways for a few years, then moving on. She learned many skills, and forgot them just as quickly. She let the world wash over her, slipping into the background.
As the centuries wore on, Qana found cultures and societies that she admired, only to see them dashed to pieces by invaders or strife. Slowly, she became convinced that this was the state of the world. Powers could be disrupted. Community could be destroyed. The only thing that you could rely on was yourself, and your own skills. She honed herself into a perfected weapon, letting the hole in her heart grow to cast aside all of her love and admiration, determined to endure through any hardship. She kept her head down, she avoided others, and she became a coldly terrible force, an urban legend to terrify people who went where they weren’t wanted.
But the hole in Paragon’s heart never stopped growing. Over time, she went from coldly indifferent to the world to actively hateful, and when she learned that there were other Atlantean survivors, and their heirs, she was livid that they had cast her aside. She returned to the world with the goal of casting down not just the Atlanteans, but anyone who thought that their powers and their bonds would save them. She first appeared working alongside Doctor Freak, but it quickly became clear that he was a means to an end for her, and she tried to kill him along with the Champions of Truth. They quickly became her greatest opponents, and she believed that if she could bring them down, she would prove the emptiness of the world and stand astride it as the only paragon of life.
Paragon’s attitude seemed to vary depending on how badly her curse was affecting her. Sometimes, she would be relatively focused, aiming to prove herself against strong opponents. At other times, the hole within her would bleed out into the world, breaking down everything and forcing her foes to face her on her level. At her worst, she was a ruthless killing machine, acting as a mercenary or murderer according to her whims.
Behind the Scenes
I’m not entirely sure about Paragon. I feel like there are two warring ideas that haven’t quite meshed, and she may end up getting a glow-up down the road. But the basic idea of an eternal person who’s been so ground down by the world that they’ve become an agent of its collapse is good, and I like the idea that she doesn’t technically have powers - unless the hole in her heart opens enough to start swallowing other people’s powers, too.
4 Likes
Landgrave
Real Name: Leo Hollybrook, First Appearance: (in Venture Comics) Salvation’s End #1, March 2000
Approach: Focused, Archetype: Warden
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Annihilation
Status Dice: Scene Tracker Green: d10. Yellow: d8. Red: d6. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded 55+5H)
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Imposing d8, Magical Heir d8
Powers: Stone d12, Presence d8
Abilities:
- Fissure [A]: Attack one target using Stone. Use your Max die. That target cannot Defend or use reactions against this Attack. Attack multiple other nearby targets using your Min die.
- Fall Back [A]: Defend yourself using Presence. This Defend lasts until your next turn. If an Attack deals more damage than the Defend’s value, end the Defend and Attack the attacker equal to the Defend.
- Earthshaker [A]: Hinder using Stone. Use your Max die. The penalty applies to all actions taken in your location until the start of your next turn.
- Heir to Nothing [A]: Boost another character using Presence. Use your Max die. You may add one box to any challenge in play.
- Bones of the Earth [R]: Defend against an Attack against only you by rolling your single Stone die. Boost yourself by the damage reduced.
- (U) Possessed by Greatness (I): Increase your Close Combat to d12 and your Imposing to d10.
- (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:
- Juliet. A not-exactly loyal assistant villain. Juliet is a Relentless/Squad villain who once worshipped the Sovereign of Secrets.
- Knights of the Deep. d10 lieutenants. A Knight of the Deep may take an action to increase the die size of all Knights of the Deep one step, to a maximum of d10.
- The Breaking Seal. A Doomsday device that will shatter the region to unleash an ancient evil if not stopped.
When Venture Comics acquired Cryptid Publications in 1980, it came with a number of villains from the original setting that had proven mildly popular. For the most part, these villains languished; a few were pulled out to be used as minor opponents from time to time, but none of them made a splash - until the launch of Salvation’s End in 2000.
Envisioned as a swan song for Knightgrave, whose comic had rather abruptly ended with his return to death four years earlier, Salvation’s End saw the undead knight awakened once again by tremors reminiscent of his ancient battles. Rising from his grave, he found three heroes battling against a horde of undead knights - the Pentinent, Nightguard, and Runesword. With Mordred’s help, the three were able to overcome the threat, and pool their knowledge to learn the nature of their foe.
Leo Hollybrook was a descendent of the same ancient order of knights to which Runesword belonged, a man whose ancestor had claimed a powerful magical axe and swore never to use it for evil. Corrupted by the lure of power, however, Leo believed that he could assemble those weapons and become an invincible warrior, a belief supported by his assistant Juliet. She had led him to the second of the four weapons, triggering the powers that awakened Knightgrave, and now he was only two weapons away from unleashing an apocalypse on the world.
Over the course of the Salvation’s End limited series, the four heroes tracked Landgrave down, fighting against his undead forces and the strange knowledge Juliet wielded. In the end, it became clear that Hollybrook was not intended as a champion, but a sacrifice - Juliet believed that she could revive one of the Sovereign’s greatest minions and give it Landgrave as a vessel. In the final battle, the team barely stopped her, recovering the weapons and sealing the ancient beast once again.
The miniseries proved remarkably popular, and was widely credited with saving both Knightgrave and Nightguard (and yes, there were jokes made about the similarities in their names) from falling into obscurity for good. The former would go on to more collaborations with Penitent, and the latter would be recruited into Earthwatch later that year. As for Landgrave, he also proved too popular to stay dead, and he resurfaced frequently, first as a member of the Dread Dynasty and later as an ally of X-Calibre as the two attempted to form a new Round Table alongside Merlin. In both cases, his selfishness and short-sightedness ultimately led to him breaking away from his allies and striking out alone, followed by failure.
Behind the Scenes
As we hit 2000, the number of major appearances for a lot of villains is going to start dropping, so three major stories and a handful of minor ones over a twenty-year period is probably enough for Landgrave to appear again post-timeskip.
My oldest readers will recognize him as a one of the eighteen villains I initially created, but heavily adapted mechanically. I wanted to slide at least one Cryptic Publications villain into the lineup, and this was as late as I could reasonably push it. I will probably include another one when I get to lieutenants, along with fleshing out Runesword as a support.
This also lets me add one more “that character was dead for almost five years” to Venture’s lineup. Venture is still not as bad as the Big Two by a wide margin, but it definitely has a larger share of heroes dying For Certainly Real and then coming back than Sentinel Comics.
4 Likes
Scion (III)
Real Name: Sapphire Handler, First Appearance: (as Scion) Memento Mori #1, Mar 2001
Approach: Prideful, Archetype: Overlord
Upgrade: Power Upgrade, Mastery: Behind the Curtain
Status Dice: Based on minions. 9+: d12. 5-8: d10. 3-4: d8. 1-2: d6. None: d4. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 60+5H)
Qualities: Otherworldly Lore d10, Finesse d10, Persuasion d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Find the Weak Points d8
Powers: Sonic d10, Presence d10, Density Control d10, Teleportation d8
Abilities:
- Spring the Trap [A]: Use Criminal Underworld to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die. The starting die size for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.
- Share the Wealth [A]: Boost using Otherworldly Lore for all your minions until the start of your next turn.
- Echoing Scream [A]: Hinder using Sonic. Use your Max die. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
- Eyes On Me [A]: Roll all your minion dice and combine the result to Boost. Attack using Sonic and use that bonus.
- Bad Vibrations [R]: If an opponent ends their turn near you, you may roll your single Density Control die as a Hinder against them.
Common Scene Elements:
- Tempest Creed Laymen. D8 minions. Laymen have +1 to Boost and +2 to save against psychic damage.
- Tempest Creed Disciples. D8 lieutenants. As an action, a Disciple can step up the dice of up to two damaged minions.
- The World’s Stage. An event that is slowly devolving into insane violence from Scion’s subvocal attacks.
In early 1999, in the pages of Champions of Truth, the villain Caliban turned over a new leaf, agreeing to reform and finally taking up a relationship with Greenheart after decades of will-they-or-won’t-they. In response, Prospero went wild with rage, and over the course of the twelve-issue Greenheart limited series “Cry Havoc”, he rallied her enemies into a gauntlet designed to destroy every aspect of her life, and ultimately kill her and reclaim his wayward son. At the end of the miniseries, as Prospero lay beaten at Greenheart’s feet, he vowed that he would never stop, that he would use every resource at his disposal to destroy her unless she killed him first. He believed that in death, he would finally triumph over her, as Caliban would not be willing to stay with the woman who killed his father.
Prospero was half-right. As Greenheart hesitated, torn between the threat and her sense of justice, Caliban took the matter out of her hands, snapping his father’s neck himself. Grief-stricken at what he felt he’d had to do, he left, vanishing into the night, and leaving Greenheart alone again.
The remaining members of the Tempest Crew did not take their father’s death at their brother’s hands well. Ariel spiralled, becoming a criminal for hire on dangerous jobs, bent on the thrill of self-destruction. Miranda took a different route. Overwhelmed by grief and rage, Sapphire Handler blamed Greenheart for everything - for taking away her brother, poisoning his mind, and turning him against his family. She looked into Greenheart’s history, and tracked down her most dangerous foe - the sliver of Greyheart that still lurked in the depths of the Green. Through Greyheart, Sapphire put aside the mantle of Miranda, and took up a new power - the power of the Scion.
Although the Sovereign was long since defeated, Greyheart still possessed a fragment of connections to them, and Sapphire used all of them to develop a new religious cult, the Tempest Creed. She became a conduit for pain and loss, her voice that had once bolstered her family now able to tap into others’ hearts through subvocal power and offering them peace in their hearts in exchange for casting off their old loyalties and desires. She accepted sacrifices from her new Creed, vowing to protect them and lead them to greatness, and picked the most resolute to help her create new disasters, which she would in turn heal others from.
In Memento Mori, Scion turned her sights on Greenheart, wielding the Creed as a weapon against Grovedale. Greenheart and Penitent stood against her as chaos enveloped their city, working to find the pain at the hearts of the Creed and free them from Scion’s shackles. While they were successful she escaped, vowing that she would find a way to bring Greenheart under her control - the ultimate victory over the woman who had taken everything from her. She would lurk in the shadows, hiding behind innocuous-seeming religious orders and support groups, luring vulnerable people in like flies to take advantage of their pain and bend them to her will, and she would do it all in the name of her family. In her clashes, she often came to blows with Penitent, who was furious at the woman who had taken up the mantle that had consumed her own family so thoroughly.
Behind the Scenes
Scion is a longstanding Greenheart foe who keeps vanishing from existence, so we finally get one who’s going to stick around through to the present day. I’d been planning to develop a Greenheart-Penitent villain for a while, giving them both a bit of extra screentime in the early 2000s, and the idea of tying it in to Caliban came up while I was developing him. Turning one of the minor Tempest Crew members into a truly major antagonist is a very 2000s thing to do, and it gives us a new type of cult to deal with.
I’d mentioned in passing that Greenheart killed Prospero. I decided it was far more tragic for Prospero to try to force her to kill him, and then his son does it, and it accomplishes the goal of splitting them up anyway. Caliban probably also spirals back into villainy of the non-lethal variety for a while after that; I don’t know if he recovers and returns to Greenheart by the end of the 2010s or not. Something to put a pin in for future stories.
3 Likes
dang, the Tempest Creed turn out to be a really good set of characters like, a gift that keeps on giving
1 Like
Caliban and the Tempest Crew were definitely helped by the fact that I was simultaneously filling in Silver Age archetypes and Plutonium Age events. I was in the middle of working on Caliban when I ran into the “what is Greenheart up to between her comic’s cancellation are her return in Cryptic Trails”, which led into the Shakespeare theming for the troupe and from there into Prospero and Scion!
3 Likes
The Atlantean
Real Name: Ezekiel, First Appearance: Shattered Mirrors #2, June 2002
Approach: Mastermind, Archetype: Predator
Upgrade: Calming Aura, Mastery: Behind the Curtain
Status Dice: Based on engaged opponents. 0-1: d10. 2-3: d8. 4+: d6. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)
Qualities: Insight d10, Stealth d8, History d8, Alertness d8, Finesse d8, Plans Within Plans d8
Powers: Telekinesis d12, Precognition d10, Teleportation d8
Abilities:
- Inconspicuous (I): Double any bonuses or penalties of your choice involved with taking action against a target that is unaware of your presence or distracted from remembering that you’re still around.
- Of Course You’d Try That [A]: Boost yourself using Insight and use your Max die. Either make that bonus persistent and exclusive, or Boost yourself again using your Min+Mid dice.
- You Left An Opening [A]: Attack one hero using Stealth. Hinder all heroes using your Max die.
- A Thousand Years Too Early To Face Me [R]: When Attacked, roll your single status die. Hinder the Attack using that result, and deal damage to the attacker equal to that penalty.
- (U) Reality On Demand (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 Telepathy die.
- (U) Master Behind the Curtain (I): As long as you are not directly involved in the fray and are using your influence indirectly, automatically succeed at an Overcome to manipulate a situation.
Common Scene Elements:
- A villain currently being manipulated. This second villain is a flashy and direct one, with no idea that the Atlantean is behind their current plot.
- Manipulated Fools. D6 minions. After taking an action, a Manipulated Fool may change their die to its maximum value, after which they are taken out.
- The Dark Seat. Throneroom of the Crusaders’ world, with brainwashed soldiers and terrified captives acting as environment twists.
The Plutonium Age of Venture Comics was marked by a series of major crossovers, ranging from multiple comics all the way to company-wide events. The first of these events, Shattered Mirrors, crossed between Champions of Truth, Spectacular Skybreaker, Earthwatch, Liberty’s Dream and Protean, totaling twenty issues across five titles, including a central limited series and three tie-in one-shots.
In Shattered Mirrors, the inhabitants of a particularly dangerous pocket dimension realized that there was a larger universe out there, and launched a full-scale invasion of Earth. They were led by the Crusaders of Tyranny: Greenfist, who represented nature red in tooth and claw, and who was the iron-fisted ruler of True Rome; Windslayer, an ancient demigod revived with an unquenchable bloodlust and thirst for grand battles; Adjudicator, a robot lawmaker programmed to be judge and executioner; The Man, a former rebel who overthrew his city’s corrupt order only to enforce a new order across the world; and Voidstar, an alien con artist who had been coerced into becoming the strong arm of the new world order. Together, the Crusaders and their Earthforce army, made up of captured supervillains forced into service as shock troopers, attacked the Earth to destroy their alternates and claim the prime reality for themselves.
As the heroes of Earth faced off against their duplicates or joined forces with villains-turned-heroes from the mirror world in the pages of their comics, one mirrored villain was conspicuously absent - the Wonderer. Investigating, the Drifter discovered the terrible truth about this mirrored world - initially, the only hero to have been corrupted was him. In this timeline, Ezekiel had survived the fall of Atlantis by harnessing the dark magic of the Fomorians, only to use it to break his chains and begin the long process of manipulating the world to his liking. He seized Barquan’s lamp, forcibly transforming the djinn into the Adversary, a powerful reality-shaper who could corrupt the timelines of heroes and turn them to his will. Through the Adversary, Ezekiel became the Atlatean; seemingly just a minor functionary advising the Crusaders, but actually controlling their every move. Any hero who could not be corrupted, such as the Steward and Madame Liberty, was slain.
Armed with his new knowledge, the Drifter gathered a set of magical heroes together, and in Shattered Mirrors #5 they were able to heist the Adversary’s lamp away from the Atlantean, restoring Barquan. The maddened djinn promptly attempted to destroy the Atlantean’s pocket dimension, and the heroes had to contend with both him and the weakened Atlantean, as the Crusaders’ invasion collapsed in disarray.
Ultimately, the day was saved, and the dark universe was sealed away again. The Drifter vowed to work to fix this universe, healing broken heroes one by one, and the Atlantean was destroyed, consumed by the Adversary and lost forever.
Shattered Mirrors proved to be a wildly popular event, and the sales prompted a renaissance of new titles for Venture. As a result, it also ended up setting the stage for the next sixteen years, with new crossovers coming out every year and comic lines getting increasingly tangled together. As for the Atlantean himself, he was far too popular to stay dead, but in his future appearances he was forced to be much more circumspect. Without his chained djinn, and with the heroes of Earth on alert for his manipulations, he stayed behind the scenes, manipulating others through coincidence and misfortune. He found himself clashing with the already-populous field of Earth villains, especially those with similar modes of operation, and readers would never know where he would pop up next, manipulating another villain towards his ends - in the particularly popular 2014 Triple-Cross one-shot, he, Iron, Will, and the Red Herring all tried to manipulate Avarice to their own ends, leading to all four villains being defeated by one another.
Behind the Scenes
We’ve had a couple ‘evil alternates’ already - Greyheart as an evil embodiment and Madame Calamity as an extremist version of Madame Liberty, but I built all these alternate universes and didn’t have an “everyone is evil” one. So now I do, except everyone is evil because of one guy, not because the world is mysteriously flipped. The Evil Mirror universe definitely sticks around in the background, and even though the Atlantean should be defeated in a one-off, that’s never how it works in comics.
In a straight fight, the Atlantean isn’t too dangerous, which is why he will try to avoid having one. He’ll throw minions and lieutenants and challenges at you to distract you, build up massive Boosts, and then use them at double strength from surprise to take you out, all while his access to the Adversary limits you from using your powers to their fullest.
4 Likes
I expect he’d go hunting for a replacement djinn to enslave among the many alternate universes. How well that would work out is debatable.
1 Like
yeah, that sounds like a great story
1 Like
I remember a story with someone collecting magic crowns from multiple universes and combining them into one super magic crown
Can’t remember if it was Marvel Comics or Champions RPG setting.
3 Likes
Hmm, I am short a couple annual crossovers, and “rename popular crossover II” was pretty popular in the 2010s. I may slip in a “Shattered Mirrors II” for the Atlantean trying to grab a bunch of Wonderers from different universes to re-establish his power.
2 Likes
I think it might be both, actually. Champions has a group called the Crowns of Krim (for the relics they wear) and there might have been a story where someone was trying to collect and fuse them, and I’m almost certain Marvel’s Serpent Crown has been the center of at least one multiversal crossover story where the Big Bad was trying to combine crowns from multiple universes.
2 Likes
Just stay well clear of Shazzan while you’re at it. That guy will kick absolutely anyone’s ass and laugh the whole time he’s doing it. Makes the Golden Age Specter feel inadequate. To quote the wiki “Once Shazzan materializes, it is extremely bad news for the villain.”
1 Like
Purifier
Real Name: Purifier, First Appearance: Liberty’s Dream (Vol. 3) #32, Apr 2004
Approach: Leech, Archetype: Guerrilla
Upgrade: Group Fighter, Mastery: Mad Science
Status Dice: Based on engaged opponents. 4+: d10. 2-3: d8. 0-1: d6. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded 55+5H)
Qualities: Investigation d8, Alertness d8, Otherworldly Mythos d8, War Machine d8
Powers: Absorption d10, Gadgets d8, Awareness d6
Abilities:
- Negative Beams [A]: Attack using Gadgets. Use your Max die. Boost with your Min die. This bonus is persistent and exclusive.
- Void Vents [A]: Attack using War Machine, using the Max die against one target, Mid die against a different target, and the Min die against a third target. If you Attack three different targets, the damage is irreducible.
- Reality Inversion [A]: Attack multiple close targets using Otherworldly Mythos. Hinder each target using your Min die.
- Dimensional Shielding [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Absorption die. If this negates the Attack entirely, Hinder that target and Boost yourself with that same die roll.
- (U) Nihil Deflectors (I): When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
- (U) Master of Mad Science (I): As long as you have access to materials, you can automatically succeed when Overcoming a challenge by using scientific principles and inventions.
Common Scene Elements:
- Purification Drones. D6 minions. When Purification Drones Hinder a target with powers, they also give a +1 bonus to Purifier.
- Nullification Drones. D6 minions. When Nullification Drones are destroyed, roll their status die and Hinder all nearby targets with the result.
- Leyline. A magically-potent environment whose abilities are being drained by Purifier, creating incidental havoc.
In early 2004, the “Earthblight” crossover saw the newly-re-established Covert Tactics and Earthwatch join forces to deal with their shared enemy, SCOURGE, as the rogue organization launched a poisoning attack on Earth’s leylines. Despite including tie-ins to Company Town, Protean, and Liberty’s Dream as well as a Vanguards one-shot and a concluding one-shot, the storyline itself didn’t have much of a long-term impact: the only element that ended up becoming popular was one that was not intended as a major factor to start.
The Liberty’s Dream companion two-parter to the crossover saw the introduction of one of SCOURGE’s newest weapons, a robot called the Purifier. The Purifier was meant to attack the Underhill, draining fae energies and converting them into anti-magical force that would shatter leylines. However, SCOURGE designed the Purifier too well. Upon activation, it immediately recognized that its prime directive to oppose magical and dimensional forces was at odds with its directive to obey SCOURGE, who were already compromised. In response, the robot decided that it was the only member of SCOURGE, and promptly went rogue, intent on fulfilling the organization’s stated goal by shattering Earth’s magical places and using that energy to oppose the Prince of Rot.
Over the course of the two-parter, Madame Liberty, Reverie, Kid Liberty and Alchymia prevented the rogue robot and its mass-produced drones from destroying a major fae town in the Underhill, which would have had repercussions across the realm. The robot was assumed to be destroyed, and everyone was ready to move on… but as it turned out, the fans loved the robot defecting from supervillains to become a different supervillain. There was always room for a robot plot, so the writers put together a second appearance of the robot the next year in Liberty’s Dream #43, and when that comic ended in late 2005 the Purifier began to make appearances in Twilight Carnival and Covert Tactics.
The Purifier was an absolute extremist, governed by its internal processes and considering itself the ultimate enemy of anyone with dimensional or magical powers, which covered most of the heroes and villains of the world. The loss of a large portion of humanity was a reasonable price to pay so long as the species survived overall, and the robot was fully capable of self-repairs and of constructing more drones. It made short-term alliances with various super-scientists such as Dr. Strife and Hive-Minder, trading technology to make its long-term goals more likely to succeed, and it took the long view. Occasionally, it would even join forces with heroes against larger threats to the world, although it was not a trustworthy ally and was prone to taking advantage of the chaos to advance its own ends.
Behind the Scenes
One last evil robot for the team! This one is a classic “turns on its creator” in the classic Sentinels mode, which we have surprisingly few of in Venture Comics. It’s a bit late for that, but the thing is a complicated mix of tangled storylines and that is appropriate for the early 2000s.
Purifier also gives us one more major crossover event, albeit one that I haven’t developed in depth. SCOURGE is a popular foe in the early 2000s, although I think they fade as we moved into the 2010s.
4 Likes
Nifty miniature there. Up there with the Retriever’s various iterations.
Re-named Mad Science, but…why Master Follower? Am I missing a joke?
How convenient. “ALL YOUR MEMBERSHIPS ARE HEREBY REVOKED. PLEASE CLEAN OUT YOUR LOCKERS AND DEPART THE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY.”
Some programmer won’t be listing this job on their resume, assuming they survived long enough to get another job.
Bonus to who? Itself? A Nullification drone? Kinda trailed off at the end there.
Ooh, I like that trick. Going to be hilarious with groups of these things and sweep abilities. I think my record to date has been six -1 penalties at once. It’s enough to make you want to take Resilience from Higher Power.
1 Like
No, you’re missing an editing error!
In my first draft, the Purifier was a Master Mercenary, which I renamed to “Master Follower” to represent it being extremely good at following orders. But then I revised the storyline to have it be in charge, which meant it wasn’t a follower any more, so I changed it to Mad Science… and didn’t rename it.
This is also what’s up with the drones; they’re supposed to give a +1 Bonus to Purifier, but the name got adjusted and ended up blank.
1 Like
heck yeah!
2 Likes