Marvel Monday: Badoon for Numenera, the Cypher System, & Claim the Sky

       

Badoon 4 (12) for Numenera, the Cypher System, and Claim the Sky

Motive: Conquest

Environment: Beyond the Farthest Star
Health: 12
Damage Inflicted: 4 points
Armor: 3
Movement: Short
Modifications: Invisibility 6, Speed Defense 5 

Combat: Their personal armor can render them invisible but they reveal themselves when they attack. On the round after they attack, roll a d6 and on a 5 or 6 they become invisible again.

Interactions: Badoons are braggarts and will extoll their conquests through history, however if diplomacy is possible flattery will ease the roll by 1 level.

"The Badoon Exfulgence is older than the Kree and the Skrulls and their species thrived at conqueroring of worlds. Among the Brotherhood's conquest attempts are the Zen Whoberi, the Spartax Empire, and the extra-dimensional world of Polemachus. They have been known to form alliances with the Brood (against the Shi'ar and Earth's superhumans of a prior World), the Kree (against the Skrulls), and Byrrah of Atlantis.  They were also responsible for killing a woman who would have become the universe's greatest peacemaker."

Numenera: Pale Horse

      

Pale Horse 7 (21) for Numenera

Motive: Thrill of Battle

Environment: Ninth World
Health: 24
Damage Inflicted: 7 points
Armor: 3
Movement: Short
Modifications: Might Defense 8, Speed Defense 8

Combat: Pale Horse bears five cyphers at a time and if not hired to assassinate a target will focus on the weakest enemy and work her way up to the most dangerous.

Interactions: When not on an assignment she can be found at the Edamame Bloom where she is a co-owner with Agnar Vex.

Pale Horse is the youngest child of the Bright Moon clan of nomads who lived in the Ka desert. When Pale Horse was eleven her clan was attacked by bandits and the only survivors were her and her adopted brother, Agnar Vex. Eventually, Pale Horse and Aganar made their way to the city of Redoubt and fell in with a gang of street kids who worked for Yolo Eberflus, a charismatic glaive who was addicted to the drug Zen due post-traumatic stress disorder from being conscripted into war at the age of fourteen. After Pale Horse and Agnar joined Yolo's Shinedown gang, she began training in unarmed combat and intrusion methods while Agnar began learning the art of the grift and pickpocketing. Yolo saw an emptiness as he looked into Pale Horses eyes and recognizing it, began to push her skills and started training her on the use of various weapons. Each challenge he put in front of her she overcame and soon she was attracting the notice of more powerful and dangerous people in the city. Two months before she turned fourteen she was approached by Throkmorton Mu, the new Death's Head of the Estate, an assassin guild that operated in Redoubt. He offered her and her brother a life of financial security and an outlet for her combat prowess, but she turned him down saying she had a family now. Mu, guessing she counted Yolo as part of it, asked her to offer him the choice between fleeing the city with her and her brother and 100,000 Shin or a three-month supply of Zen. Pale Horse was shocked and angered by Mu's proposition but decided to present the choice to Yolo certain that he was dead wrong. The last time Pale Horse cried was when Yolo snatched the supply of Zen from her hand and told her to, "Quit bothering me and Frak off." 

When Pale Horse contacted Mu she laid out her demands to him which consisted of making sure her brother was to be protected and he accepted them without any hesitation. Then he welcomed her to the guild, but as she left the room, he asked her, "How did you leave things with Yolo?" As she walked out of the room she informed him that her mentor had died from an overdose.

In the last fifteen years Pale Horse has become a whisper that strikes fear in the hearts of those in the know. She the Valley of the Shadow Death. She is the evil. She is the rod and the staff. She has no fear.

Two years ago, she and Agnar bought the Edamame Bloom and he runs the day to day operations. She is taking fewer jobs as most of her guild obligations have been attained and she is now a Master within its ranks. Several months ago, a small operation within the Westside of Syzygy began dealing Zen and word got back to her about it. Every member of that crew died in a very, very, painful manner that took them all several days. Pale Horse met with both Logriss and her wife Yrsula and an understanding between all three parties was worked out.

You can't find Zen in Syzygy any longer.

Numenera: Blue Sun Paladin

     

Blue Sun Paladin 4 (12) for Numenera

Motive: Freedom

Environment: Syzygy
Health: 12
Damage Inflicted: 4 points
Armor: 3
Movement: Short
Modifications: Demolitions 5, Rabble rousing 5

Combat: The paladins of the Blue Sun use the anonymity  and extensive planning in their quest to free Syzygy from the Montessi and Von Carstein crime families and to make both pay for their many atrocities.

Interactions: Exeter, a Blue Sun cell leader or Chamberlain (Level 5 [15]) operating out of the fashion district on the Westside, has noticed the actions of the characters and decides to recruit them for a very special mission.

The Blue Sun was formed almost fifteen years ago after a deadly and bloody battle between the Montessi and Von Carstein crime families that lead to a plasma main break causing an explosion within the Blue Sun Elementary Education Center. Fourteen hundred children between the ages of 4 and 12 and one-hundred and eighty adults died due to the explosion and the Montessi family's blockade preventing emergency vehicles and first responders into the area because it was in the Von Carstein's territory. Rumors claim that over half of the parents who lost children that day created the first Blue Sun cell. 

Over the next four years the Paladins, who anonymously served the Blue Sun, did enough damage to both families to have them begin the initial meetings that would lead to the Concord. However, the Blue Suns have no interest in some mirage of peace as their final goal is the eradication of both families and the creation of a democratic government within Syzygy.

Every Paladin and Chamberlin that have answered the Blue Sun's call will not settle for anything less than freedom for their city and to prevent any further atrocities by either family.

Numenera: 20 Rumors in Syzygy

 

Inspired by Jeff's Gameblog, below are rumors circulating around the city of Syzygy, the setting for my Numenera campaign.  

Fair warning: Some of these may be true.

Roll a d20 or pick one:

1) The Edamame Bloom, on the upper Eastside, is co-owned by Pale Horse a feared assassin who is considered one of the best in the World. Those seeking to hire her should ask the bouncers if they can see "Dr. Bombay".

2) A large myocbiota of mi-go has grown up over the last thirty years in the depths of Lake Hadron on the upper Westside. 

3) Several citizens in the Karpeth neighborhood, on the lower Eastside, have contacted the Von Carstein family about strange encounters within the datasphere where an intelligence calling itself Jobe has offered them their wildest dreams in exchange for helping it find its "missing pieces" so it can enter the Ninth World physically.

4) A strange arthropod known as bly'orn grows on the outer hull of the Craft, the downed starship that is home to the city. Apothecaries pay up to 5 Shins a kilo to use it for the treatment of abfluenza, several forms of cancer, epsilon sickness, and genital warts.

5) The Blue Suns seek to free the city from the control of the Montessi and Von Carstein families and have threatened to attack the High Night election results on 10th Anniversary of the Concord.

6) Ballarad Keep, 150 miles north of the city, was founded to observe the Colossus that stands within the Borderlands. Two weeks ago, the Colossus took a step toward the Keep causing a minor earthquake.

7) On the first Thursday of the month if you come to the back door of the  Bistro du Blaise on Kipper Street and ask for the "brunch special with three eggs and extra hot" you will be given a random cypher with a 10% chance of gaining an artifact.

8) A unicorn has been seen by multiple witnesses in the Theatre District in the last two weeks.

9) Even though the city shut down Eb'n'Bolht, a privately owned prison rife with claims of abuse to its inmates, those living nearby claim that when it rains they can hear a cacophony of terrified voices shouting "No, Byron, no more!".

10) A serial killer has murdered over sixteen proximans over the last fourteen months on the lower Westside. A reporter for Vox III, Ed mok Tuuurg, has just aired the story and claims they were threatened by the Montessi family to keep the case quiet.

11) Ajaxx Dross has been using several dentofiends to dispose of the refuse they collect on a daily basis, but one of them has escaped.

12) On the northern shore of Lake Hadron is a small house with a tidy yard and a bright white fence. The house has a baby blue door with a gold plaque and the message on it changes every morning at dawn.

13) Gurley Provost is running for City Council and his platform has a 50 year plan to repair the Craft, the crashed starship that holds the city, and return it to space.

14) There is a soothsayer, known as Flogging Molly, in front of Corven Imports on Pikipsey Street on the Upper Eastside who charges 1 shin for your fortune. The woman's eye color changes and when they are green her readings are always accurate.

15) The Craft, the crashed starship that holds the city, has six sub-decks that can only be reached from the Generator on the upper Eastside. The entrance is guarded at all hours by a kelursan.

16) Logriss Montessi has acquired the legendary black blade known as Stormbringer.

17) The Nitehawks operate out of a tinker shop on Jibroni Way and claim that the Montessi family are all vampires.

18) Yrsula Von Carstein, like her mother and grandmother, have a psionic link to the Craft, the crashed starship that holds the city, which is sentient. The Concord was its idea after Flogging Molly, the soothsayer on Pikipsey, read its fortune.

19) The Hex has been in the city for over two months and everything is going according to their plan.

20) Amity Montessi-Von Carstein is a clone of her mother Logriss and not her daughter with Yrsula Von Carstein.

Numenera: Syzygy

Syzygy is city of 700,000 souls sheltered within the remains of a titanic extraterrestrial ship that crashed during one of the prior worlds. It lies northeast of the Sagus Cliffs, along the Butterfly Coast, and is serviced by the wharfs of Kobalt Bay which have grown up around it. The city is coming up on the 10th anniversary of the Concord, which saw an end to a gang war spanning over a century between the Montessi and Von Carstein organized crime families. The Concord came about through the marriage of Logriss Montessi and Yrsula Von Carstein which formally split the city into two territories with the Montessi family running the Westside and the Von Carstein family running the Eastside. While versifiers spin yarns of true love at first sight between the two women that story is merely a fairy tale and couldn't be further from the truth. Logriss and Yrsula mutually agreed that their family's war was bad for business and no longer cost effective and realized a truce would be better for everyone, the fact that both women shared an attraction for each other was imply icing on the wedding cake.

While both families had members who were skeptical of the plan the last decade has proven more profitable than at any point in the war with the only rabble rouser left being Beowulf, Yrula's youngest brother, a suave, brilliant, and fierce sociopath who has his own designs on his sister-in-law. 

The Concord has also made the city safer since both family's are more focused on collecting their dues and providing their protections instead of almost daily battles erupting as some form of retribution. Even the oldest citizens have finally abandoned most of their skepticism about the Concord failing or simply being a ruse.

The 10th Anniversary of the Concord is going to be the first Election Day for Syzygy's City Council in twenty-five years. The feud between both families was so volatile and bloody that citizens weren't willing to gather at voting sites out of fear and didn't trust any of the results of those final elections from a quarter century ago. With the Concord in place, anyone was able to run for any of the Council's seven seats provided they had enough support. Eleven candidates have thrown their hats in the ring and, shockingly, only four of them are members of either family. Election Day has been made a citywide holiday and the new Council members are going to be announced in a gala celebration of the Concord at High Night (midnight). Neighborhoods have been planning for this day for nearly a year and there is newfound optimism that has spread over the city as the shadow of war recedes from the citizen's memory.

Election Day is going to be a new dawn for a city that has unprecedented prosperity and peace. Families no longer have to worry about having one of their children recruited into the war or worse, become innocent victims of a vendetta they had no part in. While many citizens, especially older ones, looked at the Concord with suspicion both the Montessi and Von Carstein families have lived up to their promises and Syzygy has become something more over the last decade. The city abounds with opportunity for those bold enough to seize it while still offering real stability for those who simply want to live their life and not become statistics of a bloody and fruitless war.

Welcome to Syzygy where dreams really can come true.

Marvel Monday: Annihilus for the Cypher System, Claim the Sky, & Numenera

 Annihilus 10 (30) for Claim the Sky and the Cypher System 

Motive: Conquest

Environment: Negative Zone
Health: 39
Damage Inflicted: 10 
Armor: 9 
Movement: Long 
Modifications: Might Defense 11, Speed Defense 11

Combat: Annihilus is loud and obnoxious foe who will attempt to use every advantage in his path of conquest or destruction.

Interactions: He will bully, pontificate, and even destroy anyone who gets in his way.

"Finding the wreckage of a starship, he used a special helmet to transfer all information about the advanced Tyannan technology to himself. This caused him to grow stronger and smarter, gaining a Cosmic Control Rod and body armaments. The creature eventually became known as Annihilus and he set out to destroy anything that was a threat to his existence. He planned to conquer or destroy all planets nearby Arthros.
   Annihilus feared only one thing: death. Because his Cosmic Control Rod extended his lifespan, he defended it from every potential threat, real or imagined. His first impression of the Fantastic Four, then, was not favorable: they took away his rod to treat Susan Richards during her pregnancy, although they returned it when they were through with it."

Dark Tower: Deadlights for Numenera

     

Art by Vince Proce

Deadlights 7 (21) for the Cypher System 

Motive: Feed

Environment: Anywhere in Creation
Health: 21
Damage Inflicted: 7 points
Armor: 5
Movement: Long
Modifications: Frighten 10, Mental defense 10

Combat: Deadlights feed off of emotions and may be able to shapeshift. Sometimes they have very specific periods of activity before hibernating. They are cunning and terrifying opponents and will use your own thoughts and fears against you.

Interactions: Deadlights we'll stalk their prey and prefer to target them individually, sometimes impersonating a person in their life.

"The Deadlights are the true form of Pennywise/IT and Joe Collins/Dandelo. The Deadlights are orange writhing lights that exist in Todash Darkness. Pennywise uses its Deadlights to break a person's mind because one look at the Deadlights will make a person go insane due to it not being able to be comprehended by a human mind. Pennywise's spider form, the form that he doesn't pick from the victim's mind, is the closest our minds can come to comprehending the deadlights without going insane."

Numenera: The Hecatomb of Tsarina Breeta the XI

 Art by Dan Watson

After the Third and final Robotech War ten-thousand zentradi refugees returned to Earth and were given Antarctica to use as their home which they renamed Sanctorum. However, within a century the poles of the Earth shifted and the climate and weather changed dramatically as Sanctorum was now on the planet's equator. A great zentradi empire arose, known as the Z'Earth Union, which flourished for over 1000 years as it helped shepherd the human survivors of the pole shift.

However, the lemurians, who sank Atlantis and were then banished to the far off city of Carcosa by the Sorcerer Saints of Nod, managed to return to Earth as reward for their loyalty to the Lord of Chaos, Xathoqqua. They immediately began attacking the Z'Earth Union which created a terrible and devastating war that ended the 3rd World and destroyed 97% of the sentient life on Earth.

Recently, a Hecatomb honoring Tsarina Breeta the XI was uncovered in Matheunis the Cold Desert was uncovered and explored by Arin Tarn. The burial chamber not only contained the remains of Breeta the XI but the remains of her two sisters, Enna and Pareen as well as numerous texts chronicling the history of the zentradi and the Z'Earth Union that reigned for centuries. Rumor persist that Tarn has within their possession a zentradi gene seed that could allow for the return of that extinct species. Complicating matters is a 1,000,000 shin bounty being offered for Tarn being brought alive to Etienne Gambo, the head of the Gambo crime syndicate and based out of the city of Syzygy.

Zentradi 5 (15) for the Cypher System 

Motive: Freedom

Environment: The 3rd World
Health: 15
Damage Inflicted: 5 points
Armor: 3
Movement: Long
Modifications: Might defense 6, Pilot 6

Combat: Zentradi are terrfying foes whose size and mastery of technology were encoded into their DNA by the Robotech Masters.

Interactions: The zentradi of the Z'Earth Union of the 3rd World sought to help the human species endure it's pole shift and to embrace peace over war.

"The Zentraedi were a genetically engineered warrior race of clonesthat served the Robotech Masters."

Numenera: Victor Von Doom

    

Victor Von Doom 9 (27) for the Cypher System 

Motive: Rule

Environment: Anywhere on Earth
Health: 30
Damage Inflicted: 10 points
Armor: 7
Movement: Short
Modifications: Manipulation 10, Numenera 10, Intellect Defense 10

Combat: Doom prefers to work behind the scenes and keep his identity a secret but he is a vicious and remarkably experienced warrior who exploits technology and magic to attack his enemies.

Interactions: Most of his operatives do not know they are working for Doom and he would delight in hiring the characters to accomplish one of his many goals.

"During the invasion of Earth by the Martian Masters, Victor Von Doom fought alongside the heroes of Earth, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Captain America, Franklin Richards and the Silver Surfer. Unlike most of Earth's defenders, Doom survived the war, though most of his activities during the next thousand years are unknown.[1]

At some point, Doom killed Logan, and had his brain transplanted into the mutant's adamantium coated skeleton. This would not be known to the world at large, who by the 31st century believed that Doom had been dead for centuries."

Masters of the Universe: Pelezeean for Old School Essentials

 

Pelezeean for Old School Essentials

They are a race of mammalian humanoid creature native to the planet of Eternia. The most notable member of the race was Odiphus who betrayed his people by telling the invading warlord Prahvus where the Paleezeans kept their weapons. Unfortunately for both of them, the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull happened to be in the town, caring for an injured soldier to stop them both.

AC 8 [11], HD 1+1 (6hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6), THAC0 19 [+0],  

MV 90’ (30’), SV D12 W13 P13 B15 S15 (E1), ML 9, AL Neutral, 

XP 10, NA 1 (1d4), TT P, Q

▶ Hide: When not wearing armor their AC is an 8 [11].

▶ Keen Hearing: They Hear Noise on a roll of 1-2 on a d6.

*If using BX Ascending their Trained Save is 12 and their Untrained Save is 15.

Back This: Gunslinger on Kickstarter

I just backed a Kickstarter, Gunslinger - Strange Science in the Wild West from Thomas Denmark of Night Owl Workshop whose OSR products are must-buys for me. His games are a What If Dave and Gary made a Supers RPG or a John Carter of Mars RPG or in this case a science-fantasy RPG in a Wild West of Strange Science.

Guardians is one of my favorite Super Hero RPGs and I've thoroughly enjoyed Raiders! and am a big fan of his OSR classes.

Gunslinger is right up my alley and I can't wait to get it in my grubby hands.

I urge you to back it too.

Back This: Hell Night by Gavriel Quiroga on Kickstarter

Hell Night, by the incredibly talented Gavriel Quiroga, is on Kickstarter right now and has around 72 hours left to back. Gavriel's work on Neurocity & Warpland is incredible and Warpland is the best looking RPG that I've ever had the pleasure to own.

Here is the set-up for Hell Night:

Hell, the dimension of torment and spiritual atonement, has suffered an insurrection. Its ruler has laid dormant for decades and the domain is convulsed by the inefficacy of a headless hierarchy. A few Archons, powerful demons which rule over the Circles, have escaped their obligations and are now breaking havoc on the land above, Earth. To make matters worse, a celestial herald from the cohorts of Heaven has come with an ultimatum, ¨You have until dawn to remove the deserters from the realm of man or else we will storm your gates¨

It is your solemn duty to hunt down these dangerous, demonic fugitives. So, gather your unholy arms, armor and cursed relics; the fate of cosmic balance lies in your hands. An infernal choir has been summoned to honor your quest and bid farewell as you blaze through the gates of torment on your thundering hellride.

Your strength is as great as your determination, as the fire that consumes your rage. Welcome to Hell Night.

I urge you to back Hell Night before it ends and relish in it's doom biker glory.

Here is the link.

Solomon Kane: Undead of Engazi for Mythras

Undead of Engazi for Mythras

STR: 3d6 (11)                  ACTION POINTS            1

CON: 3d6 (11)                 DAMAGE MODIFIER     +1d4

SIZE: 2d6+6 (13)            MAGIC POINTS              0

DEX: 2d6 (7)                    MOVEMENT                   4m      

INT: 2d6 (7)                     INITIATIVE BONUS      7

POW: 1d6 (4)                   ARMOUR                       Natural

                                          ABILITIES                    Undead

                                          MAGIC                           None

1d20              Location       AP/HP

1-3                Right Leg        2/5

4-6                Left Leg          2/5

7-9                Abdomen        4/6

8-12              Chest               4/7

13-15            Right Arm       4/4

16-18.           Left Arm         4/4

19-20.           Head               6/5

Skills

Athletics 18%, Brawn 64%, Endurance 72%, Evade 14%, Perception 41%, Stealth 64%, Unarmed 58%, Willpower 48%

Passions

Feed on Souls

Combat Style & Weapons

Unarmed

Weapon    Size/Force     Reach      Damage         AP/HP    

Bite                 S                 T             2d4        As for Head         

Claw               S                 S          1d4+1d6   As for Arm

Numenera: Lord Humongous

   

Lord Humongous 5 (15) for the Cypher System 

Motive: Rule

Environment: Wastelands
Health: 15
Damage Inflicted: 6 points
Armor: 3
Movement: Short
Modifications: Intimdation 6, Might Defense 6

Combat: While he prefers to use a vehicle to attack he is a powerful physical opponent.

Interactions: If the characters are willing to bow down to him and give him deference he will work with them.

"Some time in the gap between Mad Max and Mad Max 2 Humungus formed and led a gang of marauders, bikers, berserkers and generally crazy individuals; androgyny is widely exhibited by a significant portion of the group. He commands this otherwise unruly cabal, using a combination of intimidation and violence, on an indefinite campaign to steal valuable commodities - killing anyone who gets in their way."

Hyperborea: Gort

 

Gort for Hyperborea 3rd Edition

"Gort is a member of a "race of robots" invented by an interplanetary confederation to protect their citizens against all aggression and holding irrevocable powers to "preserve the peace" by destroying any aggressor."

Gort: #E 1 (1d6) | AL LE (or N) | SZ L | MV 50 | DX 11 | AC 0 |  HD 9 | #A 2/1 | D 3d6 | SV 8 | ML 11 | XP 900 |  TC A, F, W | Special: DR 3

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