Dev-Ri, aka “Star Girl”
Concept: Lor Mentat refugee (Psychic)
Power Level: 8 (120 pp)
Image by Linda Whitson with Doll Divine
Combat: Attack +0, Init +5
Defenses: Dodge +10, Parry +10, Toughness +6, Fortitude +3 , Willpower +9
Abilities: STR 0; STA 1; AGI 1; DEX 2; FIG 0; INT 4; AWE 5; PRE 3
Advantages: Beginner’s Luck, Defensive Roll 5, Evasion 1, Improved Initiative.
Skills: Deception 2 (+6), Expertise: Galactic History 3 (+7), Expertise: Lor Sciences 2 (+6), Insight 3 (+6)
Powers:
Mental Awareness: Senses (Mental Awareness, Acute, Detect, Radius, Range) (5 pts)
Mental Communication: 2 ranks with the Area extra (10 points) Linked w/Mind Reading 5 (10 pts)
Precognitive Defenses: Enhanced Trait 26 (Parry 10, Dodge 9, Defensive Roll 5, Evasion 1, Improved Initiative 1).
Array (21 pt):
Hallucinations: Illusion 6 (visual/hearing 3/rank), Extra: Selective (+1/rank) Flaw: Resistible by Will (-1/rank) (18pt)
Mental Blast: Damage 4; Extras: Perception Ranged (+2/rank),Will Alternate Resistance (+1/rank), Subtle (+1/rank); Flaw: Side Effect (“Migraine”)
Affliction [vs. Fort]: vulnerable (pain)/exhausted (vomiting)/incapacitated
ESP: Remote Sensing 4 (Vision, Hearing, Mental) (1pt)
TK: Move Object 6, Extras: Perception (+1/rank), Subtle (+1/rank);Flaw: Activation–Move action (1pt)
Complications:
Motivation: Acceptance on Earth for the Lor
Enemy: Imperium Hounds
Culture Shocked!: Homesick, and very unfamiliar with Earth people, customs, history, etc. (and sometimes not sure she wants to know more!)
Abilities 32 + Defenses 10 + Advantages 1+ Skills 5 (10 Ranks) + Powers 72 = 120
Backstory: Dev-Ri is an adolescent Lor refugee, aged 16 (in Earth years). She began to show mentat abilities a couple years ago. However, her training has been haphazard, since the usual mentat training system was disrupted by Star-Khan’s conquest of the Lor Republic and the flight to Earth. Her informal teacher was the telekinetic Lor mentat Ar-Lun, a family friend.
After Hounds made attacks on Ar-Lun and other mentats at Star Island, he and her surviving family (her father Ur-So, a Lor Navy officer, and his cousin Ra’ana, a pilot) were afraid that Dev-ri would be the next target. They suspected the only reason the Hounds hadn’t detected her before was that she was ill, delirious from a high fever and sedated heavily. Now that she was out and about, it was only a matter of time–and a half-trained mentat would have no chance of resisting them. Ur-So asked Daedalus for help.
Daedalus knew, from his MarsTech contacts, that Max Mars planned to sponsor Lor refugees to resettle around Emerald City and that there were plans to open an Academy similar to Claremont. The hero arranged for Dev-Ri to to be quietly sent on to Emerald City before official permissions for resettlement were given. She would then be enrolled at Arcadian Academy. Daedalus and Max Mars felt that the young Lor would be good for PR to help convince humans the Lor were “really just people like the rest of us.” There were other reasons to send Dev-Ri to Arcadian Academy. First, she could become familiar with Earth and its humans in a more-sheltered environment, with people her own age who also had unusual abilities. She would be close to MarsTech, who could assist the Academy staff with her if necessary. And Hounds and other enemies might not look for her so far away from her own people.
Dev-Ri is very unfamiliar with Earth, being one of the first Lor off Star Island–and often feels very alone. The young Lor hadn’t wanted to go to the Academy, but her family and Ar-Lun insisted and Daedalus and other Earth-humans helping at Star Island encouraged her. So she’s thrown herself into her academics to keep from focusing on how unhappy she is. Just a couple months after becoming literate in several Earth languages–the only one she speaks is English–and learning Earthly mathematical symbols, she is doing well in honors and college-level courses. Her outsider status and studiousness have led classmates and even teachers to compare her to the fictional Hermione Granger–and not always in a nice way.
It doesn’t help that Dev-Ri holds typical Lor beliefs about Earth’s humans–they are descended from lost Lor colonists and not ready to join galactic civilization. She even calls them “Earthlings,” not recognizing this trope of campy/cartoon space opera! Note that Dev-Ri only uses her Lor name and doesn’t refer to herself as “Star Girl”; the “codename” was bestowed by Earth media and quickly picked up by others.
Description: Raised in a more duty-oriented society and having been through so many bad experiences (including the death of her mother Yda) fleeing to Earth, Dev-Ri is more mature and serious than her Earthly peers. Dev-Ri is a tall young woman with golden skin and brilliant green eyes and hair. Her costume uses the Lor Republic’s colors of black and green, and it has a mentat’s badge as well–hints that she might one day return to the stars to help reclaim her Republic from Star-Khan.
Design/play notes: Dev-Ri’s powers and other characteristics are based loosely on the Psychic Quick-start (in the Deluxe Heroes Handbook), the Imperium Hound NPC (Cosmic Handbook), and the NPC Mentat Ell-Va (Emerald City Knights). She is both more powerful and has a wider range of powers than the NPCs, however. Dev-Ri’s minimal skills other than Expertises in some Lor academic subjects reflect both her youth and her lack of Earth-based knowledge.
While the backstory given uses present-day Emerald City’s Arcadian Academy campaign framework, Dev-Ri would be equally at home (or not!) at Freedom City’s Claremont Academy, any similar school in your game, or even another heroes-in-training framework. Being Lor, Dev-Ri’s background is tailored for Earth-Prime campaigns. With some backstory alterations, she could work in a lower-powered/teen campaign set in the future or other universes.
The character is probably too low-powered for a Cosmic campaign, in spite of her extra-terrestrial origin. While the Cosmic Handbook‘s “Challenger of the Cosmos” archetype can be as low as PL8, such characters are usually either inventors and/or highly physical characters native to Earth, not mentats/psionics from other worlds.
Credits: Empty Bacta Tank (of D20 Radio forums and the Friday Nite Skype group) for technical editing and feedback on concept and backstory.
Linda Whitson
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