The Iron Five — Villain Sheets

Hello, all!

So, as you may know, I’ve crafted some Disparation characters and posted them over in another thread: The Iron Five.

Well, now I’ve decided to make SCRPG Villain Sheets for them!

A quick summary of the team is thus: Iron Legacy has seen how often groups of heroes of various realities have managed to best him again and again, so he has gathered alternate timeline versions of the other members of the Freedom Five who are as ruthless and extremist as he is. Together they form the Iron Five!

In the incredibly unlikely case that anyone would actually like to use any of these in an issue, you are free to do so.

And, of course, I’m open to all feedback, questions, and comments.

I’ll post the first one shortly!

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Here is the first and founding member of the Iron Five, the hero-turned-tyrant that we all know — Iron Legacy! (He is also the only “canon” character who is a part of this team.)


Iron Legacy
Alias: Paul Parsons VIII of Universe 88
Approach: Overpowered
Archetype: Bruiser

Health: 55 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Flight :d10:
Strength :d12:
Vitality :d10:

Qualities
Close Combat :d6:
Conviction :d8:
The Final Legacy :d8:

Status: Health
Green :d6:
Yellow :d8:
Red :d10:
(To calculate the Green, Yellow, and Red zones based on the value of :h:, see page 239 of the Core Rulebook.)

Abilities

  • Armored Fortitude (I): Reduce damage taken by 1 while in the Green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, and 3 in the Red zone.
  • :attack: Beat Down (A): Attack using Strength. 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.
  • Galvanized (I): Whenever you roll a 1, reroll that die.
  • :defend: Ironclad Tyrant (R): When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Vitality die. Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.
  • :attack: (U) Vigilance (I): When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die. (When using this upgrade, Iron Legacy has 20 additional Health.)
  • :overcome: (M) Master of Enforced Order (I): If you have complete control over your immediate surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Iron Legacy
“What now, hero?! What has your legacy wrought?!”
— Ivan Ramonat
Alias: Paul Parsons VIII of Universe 88
Gender: Male
Age: 60s
Height: 6’2”
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Greying Light Brown
Skin: White
Build: Paragon of Athleticism
Costume/Equipment: Golden armor with shoulder pads and armbands over a dark blue shirt, red cape held by iron lantern logo, dark blue pants with belt.
Approach: Overpowered
Archetype: Bruiser

Biography
In Universe 88, Baron Blade killed Legacy’s daughter. Enraged and grief-stricken, the man formerly known as America’s Finest Legacy was overcome with despair both for his family and for the future of mankind. After him, there would be no Legacy. Resolute, he patrolled the world, swiftly and brutally silencing any who opposed his rule. No longer a confident leader, he donned armor and attacked suspected evildoers without pause or question. All of the fortitude of the hero Legacy was channeled into an unbending global dictatorship. Iron Legacy reshaped his world into one which shook beneath his iron fist.
— From the Shattered Timelines rulebook

Capabilities and Motivations
Iron Legacy possesses all of the superpowers of his Universe 1 alternate, including superstrength, bulletproof skin, superhuman durability, flight, and danger sense. However, Iron Legacy is far more formidable than most Legacies of the Multiverse, because he simply does not hold back. While most Legacies try to only incapacitate their foes without causing fatal or lasting injuries, Iron Legacy has no such compunctions. He fights his enemies with everything he has.

Upgrades
Yet, when the need is most dire, Iron Legacy can go even farther. When he is truly motivated by desperation, when he feels that he absolutely must dish out his own brand of iron justice, Iron Legacy can push himself to strike harder and shrug off more blows than any other Legacy ever could.


Editor’s Notes:
So, Iron Legacy has only one Action Ability — Beat Down. It’s pretty unusual, I know, but I think that it has a kind of logic to it. Iron Legacy is a non-stop punching machine — he doesn’t waste any time.

I realise that his Conviction :d8: and The Final Legacy :d8: qualities do have a fair bit of overlap, but what can you do? Personally, I think that the Conviction Quality is much too flexible in general.

“Universe 88” is a designation that I made up for Iron Legacy’s timeline. I’ve also assigned numbers to each of the other Villains’ home universes. Of course, C&A have not shared the universe designations for any timeline but Universe 1, so I could very well be unknowingly using the numbers of one or more other, “canon” universes.

(Each universe number is also a metafictional easter egg. Can you figure them all out?)

Next Up: Maia Montgomery — The Death-Wraith!

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Hmmm. Given that the Iron Five version of this Legacy has gone hunting through multiple alternate timelines/universes for allies with a similar mindset, maybe let The Final Legacy do all the lifting and change Conviction into Otherworldy Mythos to reflect his increased familiarity with the multiverse? Could be Tech or Science or Magical Lore instead depending on how he was getting around, but we could assume that he’s had scientists/mages under his iron rule building his portals for him while his travels have given him more firsthand experience with what other alt-worlds are out there.

  1. I assume it’s an alphanumerical substitute for HH - that nazi salute that is two H’s - as a reference to him being a fascist?
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There’s two ways that Iron Legacy has been travelling through the Multiverse. The first is that, after the Iron Legacy event in Universe 1, he was banished by the Visionary to another timeline, as we all known. Then, he fought the heroes of that reality, and was again banished to another universe. The idea is that no heroes of any world were strong enough to permanently defeat him, so he was continuously being bounced around to different realities. I’m sure that he also found a couple of ways for him to navigate under his own power, such as mystical relics or advanced devices. But they all had limited uses or limited destinations.

Anyway, eventually he found himself in the universe of the Tachyon who would become the second member of the Iron Five. He urged her to create an inter-reality gateway for him which gave them unlimited transportation between universes, so that he could search the Multiverse for and recruit the remaining members.

@Samantha_The_Demoncat, no, that is not it. I am not clever enough to come up with something that good. Although I’ll happily retcon that the writers of the Iron Five limited series also intended that as an additional reference. The “real” easter eggs are all references to the metafictional history of Sentinel Comics. I fear that they may be too obscure for anyone to get, however.

Anyway, here is today’s Villain, the resurrected master of stealth and shadow — The Death-Wraith!


The Death-Wraith
Alias: Maia Montgomery of Universe 94
Approach: Ninja
Archetype: Inhibitor

Health: 30 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Agility :d8:
Deduction :d10:
Infernal :d10:
Strength :d8:
Eldritch Knives :d6:

Qualities
Abomination of Despair :d8:
Alertness :d10:
Close Combat :d8:
Magical Lore :d8:
Stealth :d10:

Status: Heroes with Penalties
3+ heroes with at least one penalty :d10:
1-2 heroes with at least one penalty :d8:
0 heroes with at least one penalty :d6:

Abilities

  • :recover: Feed on Despair (A): Each hero loses Health equal to the total penalties on them. Recover the same amount of Health. Remove those penalties.
  • :defend: :boost: One With the Shadows (R): When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Stealth die. Boost yourself with the amount of damage reduced.
  • :attack: :defend: Strike from the Darkness (A): Attack using Stealth and use your Max die. Defend against all Attacks against you with your Mid die until the start of your next turn.
  • :hinder: Soul-Drain (A): Hinder using Infernal and use your Max+Mid dice, or use your Max die and make it persistent and exclusive.
  • (U) Reanimater (A): Replenish your Zombie minions up to :h:.
  • :overcome: (M) Master of Mysticism (I): If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.

The Death-Wraith
”Can you really call yourself a hero if you can’t save the people you love?”
— Jonathan “Jack” Donovan
Alias: Maia Montgomery of Universe 94
Gender: Female
Age: 20s (at death)
Height: 5’7”
Eyes: Purple, glowing
Hair: Varies, wreathed in purple flame
Skin: Gray, covered in glowing purple sigils
Build: Muscular
Costume/Equipment: Dark purple bodysuit, torn black cloak, skull on her left shoulder, torn purple mask covering the lower half of her face, chain belt.
Approach: Ninja
Archetype: Inhibitor

Biography
In Universe 1, the Wraith failed to stop Spite from killing her friends Eduardo Lopez and Sarah Scott. But in Universe 94, when the serial killer held the Wraith in his grasp and was about to execute her friends, she grabbed one of his superdrug-filled syringes and injected herself with it, giving her the strength to kill Spite before he killed her friends. She soon after broke into the Pike Industrial laboratories to acquire more of the power-enhancing toxin. Driven by it to be more aggressive than usual, the Maia went on a killing spree, culminating in the deaths of the Chairman, his Operative, and all of their Underbosses. She then assumed control of The Organization and used it to ruthlessly exterminate anyone who would threaten Rook City. Her tyranny was eventually brought to a lethal end, though, by the hero team Dark Watch, aided by Parse. Yet, years later, when the dread GloomWeaver was hatching another plan to enter the prime material plane, he revived the Maia Montgomery in a zombified state, and commanded her to aid his plot. His plan was successful, and he entered reality. Yet she had secretly plotted against him, and with the help of the mystic Zhu Long, she usurped the Nightmare Walker’s power and ruled the world in his stead.

Capabilities and Motivations
The Death-Wraith possesses all of the skills, knowledge, and expertise of Universe 1’s Maia Montgomery. She is a world-class fighter and detective, and is incredibly adept at the use of stealth. But this Maia Montgomery also has unnatural physical strength, owing to her undeath, as well as the infernal magicks once commanded by GloomWeaver. She can use that power to drain the vital essence of her victims, empowering herself while they wither away. And, when Maia returned to the living world, she also resumed control of the Organization.

Upgrades
Perhaps one of the most potent abilities that the Death-Wraith has gained from stealing GloomWeaver’s magic was the Demon-God’s undead legions. She can now command those zombies to do her bidding, as well as raise other corpses, thus creating more such servants for herself.


Editor’s Notes:
The Death-Wraith is the only member of the Iron Five who does not have a :d12: Power, Quality, or Status die. That wasn’t intentional, things just worked out that way.

In a fight, she’ll likely open with Soul-Drain, then alternate between that and Strike from the Darkness. And when her Health starts getting low, she’ll use Feed on Despair to stay afloat.

She is also the member to incorporate elements from the most other characters — Spite, the Chairman, and GloomWeaver.

Next Up: Lieutenant Tyler Vance — Omni-Bunker!


[Edit: The Death-Wraith’s timeline has been renamed from Universe 84 to Universe 94. To see why, see this post.]

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Mechanically, Death-Wraith is going to want some support (zombie minions being a likely source) to apply enough penalties to make using Feed On Despair worth using. Even dropping persistent mods with Soul-Drain (I cannot read that in any voice except the old Soul Train intro…) will take too long to build up a real good spread of them. Hopefully one of her teammates has a nice multi-target Hinder or maybe there’s a Bully with that inherent ability that increases all allied penalties by 1 for better synergy.

Without going back and listening to all the many, many podcasts I can’t be sure, but at a guess maybe your universe numbering system is tied to fictional publication dates. Did Iron Legacy first show up in 1988, or just have a big story even then? Similarly, was 1984 a big appearance for Spite, or maybe Gloomweaver given the Death part of Death-Wraith?

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Iron Legacy first appears in 1988, and 1984 is when Parse kills Spite (he gets better)

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Better memory than I have. Was fairly confident about Iron Legacy but I’d never have narrowed it down to Parse killing Spite.

1984 was my freshman year in college, though. Started a hiatus in reading comics that lasted a few years before I came back around 1988. If I’d been living in a fictional universe I’d probably have been reading Wraith and Parse, not so much Legacy or Freedom Five.

Yep, you guessed it, @Chief_Lackey_Rich and @Samantha_The_Demoncat! Those two universe numbers are in fact references to those years. And the remaining three universes’ designations also reference the years in which events in Sentinel Comics occurred.

Universe 84 was referencing 1984, but it wasn’t referencing Parse’s killing of Spite. It was referencing Spite’s killing of Eduardo Lopez and Sarah Scott. But the two events did happen in the same year, so it is a moot point, I suppose.

However, 1984 was said to be the year in which both of those events occurred in in the Multiverse Recap episode (which is what I’m using as my source, because we don’t have The History of Sentinel Comics book yet), but WalkingTarget helpfully points out in his transcript of that episode, that in Editor’s Note #50, we are told that both of those events happen in the ‘90s instead, so we don’t have a reliable year anymore. But I still used the old year, because that’s all I had.

None of the Iron Five are Bullies, and as for their Abilities, well, you’ll just have to wait and see. No spoilers!

And now, here is our third member, the grief-stricken warden — Omni-Bunker!


Omni-Bunker
Alias: Lieutenant Tyler Vance of Universe 76
Approach: Creator
Archetype: Titan

Health: 45 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Gadgets :d8:
Lightning Calculator :d6:
Omni-Cannon :d8:
Robotics :d10:

Qualities
Conviction :d8:
Insight :d8:
Ranged Combat :d8:
Survivor’s Guilt :d8:
Technology :d10:

Status: Titan’s Challenge
Unchallenged :d12:
[ ] [ ] Expose the Power Core :d10:
[ ] Attack the Power Core :d8:

Abilities

  • Drone Fabrication Unit (A): Use Robotics to create a number of Omni-Bunker Drone 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.
  • :attack: :hinder: Imprison the Dissidents (A): Attack using Gadgets and use your Max die. The target can either be Hindered equal to your Max+Mid+Min dice, or be unable to take any other actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.
  • :boost: Initiate Upgrade Procedure (A): Boost one of your minions using Gadgets and use your Max die. If it is your only minion, also Boost yourself using your Mid die. If not, Boost each of your other minions using your Min die.
  • Reactive Defense Subsystem (R): When a hero takes a minor twist in the Titan’s challenge, in addition to the chosen twist, also roll your status die and deal that much damage to that hero.
  • :attack: :hinder: Sweeping Omni-Beam (A): Attack using Omni-Cannon against multiple targets. Hinder those targets with your Min die.
  • (U) Adaptive Defensive Subroutine (I): You cannot be damaged by anyone except yourself until your defense shield is destroyed. The defense shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can make an Attack as a reaction by rolling your single Omni-Cannon die.
  • (U) Emergency Self-Repair (A): Overcome using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max die. On a success, remove one success from the deactivating challenge. Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use the Max die to Recover that much of the defense shield’s Health. This ability cannot be used if the defense shield has been completely removed.
  • :overcome: (M) Master of Conquest (I): As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving seizing an area or capturing civilians.

Omni-Bunker
”My fault . . . All my fault! If only I could have stopped it! But I couldn’t . . . and now Maia — and the others — are dead!
— Tyler Vance
Alias: Lieutenant Tyler Vance of Universe 76
Gender: Male
Age: 20s
Height: 5’8”
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown
Skin: White
Build: Athletic
Costume/Equipment: Tyler Vance most commonly wears street clothes. The Omni-Bunker mecha-machine is a thirty-foot-tall amalgamation of Bunker suit tech and Omnitron tech. It consists of a quadrupedal lower body and a humanoid upper-torso.
Approach: Creator
Archetype: Titan

Biography
In Universe 1, the Freedom Five and Omnitron-X defeated the robotic menace of a rampaging Omnitron-I with no casualties. But in Universe 76, although Omnitron-X did defeat its villainous predecessor, the battle was not without losses. Legacy, Absolute Zero, and the Wraith were slain during the course of the conflict. Wracked with survivor’s guilt, Tyler Vance urged Tachyon to help him build something to stop anything like that from happening again. The two remaining members of the FF, along with Tachyon’s sidekick Unity, integrated the Omnitron tech from the recent battle into the Bunker Suit. Donning the newly-upgraded, massive armor, Lieutenant Vance used its drone-production capabilities to police Megalopolis, preemptively quashing any insurrection. Bunker’s former allies attempted to stand up to him, but were imprisoned by him for their “betrayal.”

Capabilities and Motivations
The Omni-Bunker mech has drone fabrication abilities on par with those of the original Omnitron iteration. Additionally, the Bunker suit’s Omni-Cannon has been heavily upgraded with Omnitron tech, increasing its electro-flux particle-generation dramatically. The Omni-Bunker machine also contains a mobile containment chamber, for Vance to put any rebellious dissenters in.

Upgrades
Like its predecessors, the Omni-Bunker suit has the ability to re-modify it’s defensive plating to become immune to practically any attack.


Editor’s Notes:
Omni-Bunker’s 45 base Health is the second highest of the team, with only Iron Legacy’s 55 being higher. (I’m mentioning this here because I forgot to do it during IL’s post.) I, personally, like that an utterly desperate superhuman is harder to take down than a huge robot, and it also fits with Iron Legacy being the team leader, as well as its most powerful and dangerous member.

I’d like to note that his Lightning Calculator :d6: Quality is also possessed by regular Bunker in the Core Rulebook. (Well, for him, it’s a :d8:, but you know what I mean.) I find this notable because I think that most people assume that Tyler Vance is just some soldier in a big suit, but he’s actually a really smart guy, and using the Bunker suit ain’t as easy as it looks, folks.

For the longest of times, I couldn’t decide which Villainous Masteries to give to Omni-Bunker and Iron Legacy. I knew I wanted them to be Masters of Enforced Order and Conquest, but I couldn’t decide who should get what. As you can now see, I eventually settled on Iron Legacy being a Master of Enforced Order and Omni-Bunker being a Master of Conquest.

Bonus points go to anyone who can guess what the above quote is a homage to.

Next Up: Dr. Meredith Stinson — TachAeon!


[Edit: In Omni-Bunker’s biography, Cosmic Omnitron has been replaced by Omnitron-I. To see why, see this post.]

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I do believe 1976 is Cosmic Omnitron. Knew that one off the top of my head, whereas I had to check my notes (also, iirc the issue where Sara & Edurardo die appears on one of the Spite cards in his RCR update, but I very well could be wrong.)

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It’s Rook City Renegades #6 according to “Collateral Damage” from Enhanced Edition. That could’ve before the Timeline Project, though.

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All Sentinels of the Multiverse cards that predate Definitive Edition also predate the Timeline Project. While OblivAeon shipped after they’d done it (fulfillment started in late July 2018, just before Gen Con that year), the files had gone to the printer at latest early the prior December. The timeline didn’t start to get sorted out until closer to early-January 2018.

They used the issue attributions on the cards as their general guideposts when doing the timeline project, so a lot of it is still roughly accurate, but you can’t rely on any pre-DE card attributions being right.

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Close, but not quite. 1976 was the original Omnitron-I event. Cosmnitron-II debuted in 1984.

So, this creates a bit of a problem. In Omni-Bunker’s above biography, I wrote that the Cosmic Omnitron battle was his universe’s point of divergence, but I gave that universe the year of the original Omnitron event. Thinking back, I can’t actually remember why I originally decided to have Omni-Bunker’s timeline split during the Cosmnitron event. And I want my universe numbers and their divergence points to match, so I’ve decided to retcon Omni-Bunker’s biography so that his timeline diverged during the Omnitron-I battle. I chose this option (instead of retconning his universe’s designation) mainly because the original Omnitron event is more iconic and important to Sentinel Comics than the Cosmnitron fight.

Now, concerning Spite: Spite’s DE Critical Event — which is shown in this update — shows that the Abomination of Desolation miniseries was published in 1994. The Multiverse Recap episode says that Eduardo and Sarah were murdered during the run of Abomination, so I’m then going to assume that they were killed in 1994, rather than 1984, as was originally said in that episode. So, this prompts another retcon: I’m changing the Death-Wraith’s reality’s name to Universe 94.

And now, the speediest member of the Iron Five — TachAeon!


TachAeon
Alias: Doctor Meredith Stinson of Universe 70
Approach: Mastermind
Archetype: Legion

Health: 15 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Cosmic :d12:
Inventions :d8:
Speed :d10:

Qualities
Deep Space Knowledge :d8:
Finesse :d8:
Fitness :d8:
Power-Mad :d8:
Science :d10:
Technology :d8:

Status: Number of Minions
9+ minions :d4:
5-8 minions :d6:
3-4 minions :d8:
1-2 minions :d10:
0 minions :d12:

Abilities

  • Dangerous Construction (A): Roll your single status die. Deal yourself that much irreducible damage. Create that many :d6: TachAeon Construct minions.
  • Mindless Constructs (I): Whenever multiple TachAeon Construct minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all of their dice at the same time and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion’s result on that action.
  • :recover: Returned Sanity (A): Remove any number of TachAeon Construct minions. Roll their dice and Recover that much Health.
  • Unlimited Power (R): Take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your dice pool on your turn or the dice pool of a hero Attacking or Hindering you.
  • :boost: Whispers of OblivAeon (A): Boost yourself using Deep Space Knowledge and use your Max die. Either make that bonus persistent and exclusive, or Boost yourself again using your Min+Mid dice.
  • (U) Energize (A): Choose one group of your minions in the scene. Upgrade all their dice one size (maximum :d12:). (When using this upgrade, TachAeon has 5 additional Health.)
  • :overcome: (M) 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.

TachAeon
“If only there were more of me . . . I could save us! I could protect us all! I just need more . . .”
— Meredith Stinson
Alias: Doctor Meredith Stinson of Universe 70
Gender: Female
Age: 30s
Height: 6’0”
Eyes: Golden, glowing
Hair: Strawberry Blonde
Skin: White
Build: Lithe
Costume/Equipment: Red form-fitting outfit with golden star design on torso, gold-tinted HUD goggles, and high-tech running shoes. Left hand permanently encased in a coating of Oblivion Shard crystal.
Approach: Mastermind
Archetype: Legion

Biography
In Universe 1, an Oblivion Shard crashed near Huntingdon, England. But in Universe 70, that same shard crashed near the city of Megalopolis. It was recovered by the heroic Freedom Five, who placed it in secure containment. Tachyon, scientific genius, studied the crystal’s strange emanations, and found that interacting with it would result in unpredictable, and likely destructive, consequences. So the team simply left it in secure storage. Meredith Stinson, though, was tempted by the prospect of studying the strange object, and performed minor experiments on it in secret. Years later, Earth was invaded by Grand Warlord Voss’s gene-bound armada. With Legacy incapacitated and the heroes of Earth seemingly overrun, a desperate Dr. Stinson quickly constructed a device to channel the shard’s power, and used it against the alien horde. It created energy construct-duplicates of her, which successfully drove the invaders away. But while doing so, the device fused itself permanently with Meredith. The shard-device also created an energy-storm which ravaged the area, and was slowly growing. After the battle, Dr. Stinson continued to experiment with the shard and the storm. The other members of the FF, however, urged her to stop her experiments before they caused more destruction. But she refused, and so was forced to take them out of the equation, for science.

Capabilities and Motivations
TachAeon is just as fast and just as much of a scientific genius as Universe 1 Dr. Stinson. Additionally, this Tachyon wields the phenomenal cosmic power of an Oblivion Shard, which forms a flexible crystalline casing over her left hand. When the shard fused with Dr. Stinson, her mind was flooded with interstellar knowledge. She can use the shard’s power to, among other uses, create glowing, golden duplicates of herself out of pure Singular energy. However, doing so comes with both physical and mental costs. With great power comes great insanity.

Upgrades
TachAeon can, when she needs to, pour extra energy into a group of constructs she has created, making them more durable and powerful.


Editor’s Notes:
TachAeon has the lowest health out of all the Iron Five, with only 15 base health. But she’ll likely make up for that with all the minions she generates.

Speaking of her health, I would imagine that it would bounce up and down like a yo-yo during a fight. Between Dangerous Construction and Returned Sanity, TachAeon can damage herself to create minions, then destroy those minions to heal herself. For each 1 damage she deals herself, she creates 1 :d6: minion. Then she can destroy those minions, roll their dice, and Recover that much health, which would be an average of 3.5 health per minion.

Of course, this is all assuming that the Heroes don’t at all Attack any of those minions between the time that TachAeon creates them and when she destroys them to Recover. She can use Energize to offset that, but :d6: minions are still very fragile, so it seems likely to me that Returned Sanity will only give Tachyon back an amount of health roughy equal to the amount that she expended to create a batch of constructs.

Unrelatedly, TachAeon only has one Ability that actually requires her to build and roll a die pool — Whispers of OblivAeon. All of her other Abilities either don’t require any rolls (Unlimited Power, Energize) or involve rolling something other than a standard die pool (Dangerous Construction, Returned Sanity).

Next Up: Ryan Frost — Zero!

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Even so, she can still get a lot of mileage out her bonuses, and might suffer from penalties. Dangerous Construction’s sole die can still have mods applied to it, although she’d have to be careful about overdoing the mods she channels into it or she could KO herself from the irreducible damage it produces. Returned Sanity’s dice could be modified too - they’re all effect dice in the action - but the potential number of them should makes mods less relevant.

Whispers is one of the better Boost actions in the game, especially if you can find the time to repeat it two or three times and get a +4 P&E mod and multiple temporary ones. With enough Boosts even taking basic actions to throw a big Attack could be worthwhile.

Probably going to need a minion assigned to Defend her since she lacks a strong defensive reaction of her own. She’s still very vulnerable to getting beaten down if the players realize how fragile she is, but if they take time off from minion control to do that and then fall short she’ll just heal it all and wind up ahead of the game with some minions still in play.

Interesting build, I haven’t tried that particular approach/archetype combo yet.

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1970 is Captain Cosmic & Infinitor, also off the top of my head, but I made sure to check my notes.

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What’s your reasoning behind this? I can’t seem to find anything in the rules to support it. As far as I can determine, the rules simply say that mods apply only to effect dice. And they say that effect dice are Powers, Qualities, and Status dice. So, I suppose that Dangerous Construction’s single Status die could actually be modified. It’s not much different in that respect from a reaction that tells you to roll a single Power, Quality, or Status die (except, of course, the obvious fact that it is an action rather than a reaction). Returned Sanity, though, I’m still skeptical of.

Alternatively, if one wanted to get that big bonus real fast, TachAeon could make a squad of minion, then have some or all of those minions Boost her before she uses Whispers of ObilvAeon.

She has Unlimited Power, which lets her reroll an Attacker’s dice pool. Or do you consider that to not be strong? I really haven’t had enough experience with this system to judge so myself.

I usually write the current health of villains down on index cards that I put on the table for the players to see, so the fragility of villains is often open information. Of course, that’s not taking into account abilities.

Yes, that is a nice interaction, isn’t it?

Why, thank you.

Correct! And your prize is another villain sheet!

And now, here is the fifth and final member of the Iron Five — the bitter Zero!


Zero
Alias: Ryan Frost of Universe 58
Approach: Focused
Archetype: Loner

Health: 25 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Cold :d12:
Vitality :d8:

Qualities
Cold-Hearted :d8:
Criminal Underworld Info :d8:
Ranged Combat :d10:

Status: Other Villains
0 other villains :d10:
1-2 other villains :d8:
3+ other villains :d6:

Abilities

  • :attack: :recover: Bitter Freeze (A): Attack using Cold and use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Mid+Min dice.
  • :attack: Blizzard Blast (A): Attack one target using Cold. Use your Max die. That target cannot Defend or use reactions against this Attack. Attack multiple other nearby targets using your Min die.
  • :defend: :boost: Clinically Dead (R): Defend against an Attack against only you by rolling your single Vitality die. Boost yourself by the damage reduced.
  • :hinder: :recover: Ice-Storm (A): Hinder multiple targets using Cold. Recover Health equal to the number of targets Hindered this way.
  • :recover: :boost: Man of Ice (R): When Attacked with Cold, recover that amount of Health instead of taking damage. When Hindered with Cold, Boost yourself instead.
  • (U) Sub-Zero Wastes (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ power dice at or above :d8: are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ power dice at or above :d10: 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. (When using this upgrade, Zero has 10 additional Health.)
  • :overcome: (M) Master of Annihilation (A): 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.

Zero
“Too cold? Welcome to my life.”
— Ryan Frost
Alias: Ryan Frost of Universe 58
Gender: Male
Age: 40s
Height: 5’7’
Eyes: White
Hair: Ice
Skin: Blueish White
Build: Slight
Costume/Equipment: Covered in a coating of ice and snow.
Approach: Focused
Archetype: Loner

Biography
In Universe 1, the ice man Ryan Frost was revived by Tachyon and later persuaded to join the Freedom Five. But in Universe 58, Ryan Frost was reawakened by scientists working at the Barzakh Wing of the Pike Industrial complex. The Chairman quickly put the frozen elemental to work for his criminal empire by threatening to withhold the cryo-chamber and suit that Frost needed to live. But during one job with the Organization, Ryan and the thugs he was working with were ambushed and defeated by heroic Legacy and the Wraith. Frost was recovered from the fight and brought to a hastily-constructed cryo-chamber built by Tachyon. He was given an offer by the Freedom Five: either fight crime to pay off his cryo-suit, or spend the rest of his (likely infinite) days in a cryo-chamber. Ryan Frost was fed up with others trying to profit from his unique abilities and condition. He snapped, and attacked the heroes. He unleashed the full might of his elemental power, and plunged the Eastern Seaboard into an eternal winter.

Capabilities and Motivations
Zero possesses the same thermokinetic abilities as Universe 1 Ryan Frost. The main difference between their capabilities, however, is that Zero does not wear a cryo-suit to protect himself from the outside world, and — perhaps more importantly — protect the world from him. Because of this, he is always surrounded by an intense aura of cold, and his ability to project that cold is greatly increased.

Upgrades
The sub-zero temperatures that perpetually surround Zero are very debilitating to those that near him. The intense cold makes it difficult for any hero to take action against him.


Editor’s Notes:
For Zero’s :d8: Power, I had to decide between Vitality and Absorption. I eventually settled on Vitality (as you can see) because A) Absorption didn’t really bring anything new to the table, and B) I wanted a way to emphasize that Ryan Frost is, essentially, already dead.

For Zero’s Upgrade, I knew that I wanted it to represent the aura of cold that he is constantly emitting. So I knew that I wanted it to be one of Brainwashing Zone, Power Dampening Field, or Calming Aura. But which one? I fairly quickly eliminated Brainwashing Zone on the grounds that cold does not really inhibit one’s skills. (And the turning-an-incapacitated-hero-into-a-minion bit didn’t fit.)

So, then I chose Calming Aura. But after thinking about it a bit more, it didn’t seem quite right. Locking heroes in the green zone didn’t really feel like immobilizing cold to me. So then I switched his Upgrade to Power Dampening Field, which feels more accurate. That’s what I’ve kept it as. What do all you think?

Oh, also, in case anyone was scratching their head trying to figure out why I gave Zero Criminal Underworld Info, it’s because of his forced employment by the Organization.


Closing

Well, there they are. Villain sheets for the five members of the villainous Iron Five. I hope you’ve enjoyed them. As I said in my opening post, In the incredibly unlikely case that anyone would actually like to use any of these in an issue, you are free to do so. And, of course, I’m still open to answer any questions, and I’d love to hear your comments or feedback.

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1958 is AZ’s first appearance.

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Look at the definition of effect die on page 21. “The effect die is the die that produces the result. This is the Mid die unless you have an ability or there is an effect in play that says otherwise.” It’s kind of unfortunate that they used the singular “die” there, since they go on to mention that you could have multiple effect dice like Max+Min, but I think it’s pretty clear that when an ability tells you to use some die or combination of dice to determine an effect, that die or dice are effect dice.

There are some weirdo abilities that do things like discarding a mod to Defend with the value of that mod, and there I’m not clear if you could apply another mod to that value. It’s not a die as such, but it is filling in for an effect die, so ??? The RAI there eludes me, but RAW is probably “can’t modify that effect” to me. Can’t say I’ve ever seen it come up in play myself.

Boosting is one of the best things minions can do IME, although Mindless Constructs makes it really likely that each given minion will only add a +1 bonus instead of having a decent chance to produce a +2 bonus like non-legion d6 minions would have. Still works, just not quite as efficient.

Not a huge fan of the “take 1 irreducible damage, reroll a dice pool” tricks personally, although they’re useful insurance against rolling fluke results. Unless the Attacker rolled really well Unlimited Power has a fair chance of not changing things much, or worse, watching the reroll produce a better result (well, worse for TachAeon, better for the hero). Might be more effective against Hinders, where seeing a 12+ come up makes rerolling almost always a good idea, and even 8+ isn’t bad odds of the reroll dropping the effect die to 7 or less. For stopping damage, rolling a single die (even a d8) to Defend is probably going to be more reliable in the end.

Those reroll abilities would be amazing if you got to choose which dice to reroll so you could leave a decent die in place while fishing for better, but that’d probably be too strong. Presumably they discovered that during playtesting at some point and that’s why they are what they are.

I usually let the players know health zones, but some of the folks who’ve run for me do it your way. Don’t think I’ve seen anyone keep health status entirely secret. I mostly stick to zones because I’ve noticed exact numbers lead to a bit of slowdown while the players debate about how to most efficiently achieve a KO.

That may be the best ability name ever. :slight_smile:

Makes sense to me. The real tragedy of his situation is that without Creativity (or maybe Banter, or even Cool Under Pressure) this version of Ryan probably isn’t a very good beat poet. :slight_smile:

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I suppose that your reasoning is pretty solid.

I’m almost certain that you can only apply mods to dice, not static numbers like that.

But what about abilities like Untouchable (Shadow Archetype, page #74) or Heroic Interruption (Mobility Red Ability, page #108) that just tell you to “roll a :d4:” or some other non-Power, non-Quality, non-Status die? Can that die be modified?

Oh yeah, I forgot about Mindless Constructs. Well, still, ≈5 minions making a +1 bonus each still adds up to +5, which is pretty good.

Yeah, I can definitely see what you mean.

When I used to GM another RPG (Dungeons & Dragons), I basically kept enemies’ health secret. If players asked about it, I’d say vague things like “It has less than half its maximum health” or “He looks very wounded,” but sometimes I actually gave them pretty accurate percentages. I think next time I might try adopting SCRPG’s Green-Yellow-Red zones.

Thanks. Yeah, I really like that one too. : )

True, I suppose. I’d imagine that, what with being treated like a superpowered asset rather than a human being, he’s not in much of a mood for poetry. Then again, maybe that anguish is the perfect inspiration for poetry. I could see him using Cold-Hearted :d8: for that, however. He channels his suffering into poetry.

Also, I don’t think regular Absolute Zero has any Power that could work well with a poetry roll.

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