BEACON II (The Reverend Evan Carroll)
Concept: Legacy Light-Bearer Power Level: 10 (150pp)
Skills: Athletics 2 (+3), Close Combat (Sword) 7 (+10), Deception 5 (+8), Expertise (AEGIS Agent) 1 (+4), Expertise: Theology 5 (+5), Insight 8 (+11), Intimidation 2 (+3), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 6 (+12), Ranged Combat (Light Blast) 7 (+10), Stealth 1 (+3), Vehicles 1 (+4)
Abilities: STR 1; STA 2; AGI 2; DEX 3; FIG 3; INT 1; AWE 2; PRE 3
Advantages: Benefit 2 (Former AEGIS Agent, Ordained Minister), Extraordinary Effort, Fascinate (Persuasion), Fearless, Inspire 1, Interpose, Leadership, Luck 1, Languages (English [native], Greek, Hebrew, Latin)
Powers:
Light Aura: Protection 8 (sustained, Impervious) & Reaction Damage 4 (touch)
Light Flight: Flight 8
Living Light (array)
Light Blast: Ranged Damage 10
Light Burst: Burst Area Affliction 10 (Resisted by Dodge/overcome by Fortitude; Vision Impaired, Vision Disabled, Vision Unaware: Limited to Vision)
Sword of Light: Strength-based Damage 5, Removable (DC 21), Affects Insubstantial 2 (full rank)
Healing Light: Healing 5, Stabilize
Complications:
Motivation (Doing Good): Sacred Calling–Evan sees the Light-bearer mantle as part of his call to ministry.
Enemies: In addition to SHADOW, demons, evil cultists, etc. are appropriate enemies for Beacon II.
Living Light/Living Faith: Crises of faith or conscience may weaken or remove Evan’s ability to wield the Living Light
Equipment: Minor personal items
Abilities 35 + Defenses 14 + Advantages 12 + Skills (Ranks) 18 + Powers 71=
Offense
Initiative +2
Unarmed +2, Close, Damage 1
Sword of Light +10, Close, Damage 6 / Damage 6 vs. Insubstantial
Light Blast +10, Ranged, Damage 10
Defense
Dodge: 10
Parry: 10
Fortitude: 8
Toughness: 2/10 with Protection
Will: 8
Backstory: The Rev. Evan Carroll came to the ministry by a long path, and superheroing by an even longer path. Like a number of American youngsters, he attended religious services with his family–in their case, mainstream Protestant churches–although they were not exceptionally devoted. He enlisted in the Army after high school, and during his service, he became impressed by the chaplains, of varied faiths, he met. After his enlistment, he graduated from seminary and realized his calling wasn’t to a traditional pulpit in a traditional church, but to something similar to one of those military chaplains.
Evan had an admin assistant type job with AEGIS during his college, and, after a lot of reflection, agreed to become a full agent and a chaplain. Just like soldiers, first responders, etc., AEGIS agents sometimes found themselves in need of spiritual counsel, along with the metahumans and normal people the agency served.
This worked well, and Evan was content with this calling. Mostly, being an agent during ops and providing pastoral care afterwards, was enough. Until the night he and his team raided what they thought was a front for one of the ilicit DNAscent labs. It was actually something else, an outpost of a quasi-religious cult which used a mix of blood magic and bits of stolen genetics tech (including PowerHouse/DNAscent) in its plans for power. The AEGIS came upon a couple of captive “acolytes” (read: test subjects and sacrifices) and released them, but, not having anyone with arcane skills, the team quickly ran afoul of spells.
A “Trap spell” caught Evan, his teammates, and the subjects in the lowest level of the “temple,” several of them badly injured. A man of faith, and a minister, Evan prayed and comforted and cared for his companions, a plea for their rescue. Still, even Evan’s faith was waning, as hours passed, most of the others now unconscious or delirious–until he saw the bright light and heard the gentle voice offering him a chance to be a holy guardian, a warrior of light. Not sure if he was delirious–or dying!–too, Evan murmured, “Here I am.” Infused with the living light, he brought himself, the agents, and the prisoners up from the depths of that evil place, even as more mortal rescuers arrived.
Recovering, Evan had no idea what had happened. Was it him? Was it someone else, maybe one of the altered test subjects/acolytes? Then his superiors told him he had a visitor, THE Mr. Albright, of the Albright Institute! The much older man explained that the chaplain had become the latest vessel of the Living Light, a force of goodness and even holiness, since at least Old Testament days. Albright had been searching for his sucessor for decades, as body became frailer. A minister’s son, Albright was an ideal mentor for Evan, who quickly came to see his new role as the latest call from his God.
In the months since he became Beacon II, Evan has started to make the role his own, with powers somewhat different from Beacon’s. Notably Evan, a medieval re-enactor in the Army and college, has a close light attack that he can use in situations calling for “up close and personal,” as well as being effective against malevolent spirits and other non-corporeal dangers.
Design and Play Notes: I decided to play with a legacy concept from the official Earth Prime, that of Beacon, and these stats incorporate the Light-Bearer (Beacon) template from Freedom City 3e, p. 69. I had also wanted to try a religious-based character. There are bits from a variety of sources, besides Langston Albright’s Beacon in Beacon II. The most direct is an NPC from the backstory of a DNAscent-origin hero I played a few years ago. The NPC was an AEGIS chaplain who helped new meta-humans adjust. A little of the Dresden Files’ Michael Carpenter, as well as Malleus, a supporting super in Lucien Soulban’s unfortunately short-lived Heroes Without Borders webcomic. Another pair of influences are 2 fictional military chaplains, MASH’s Father Mulcahy and the unnamed (as far as I can discover) female Protestant chaplain who appears in a number of Doonesbury strips.
Beacon II, like that unnamed chaplain, is Protestant, but no specified denomination. I chose not to specify, to make it easier for a player to pick up the character, without having to have much knowledge of a given religion; no more than you would get from watching TV or reading fiction. As usual, I also tried to keep the backstory fairly vague to enable Beacon II to fit in many superhero campaigns, and for it to be easily embroidered on as the player (and GM!) wishes. He is probably not a good fit for darker campaigns (Iron Age, 90s graphic novel inspired, etc.), since one would expect a truly good minister to not be or tolerate a blood-thirsty vigilante. Speaking of tolerance, Evan Carroll is not one of those intolerant “Everyone who doesn’t believe exactly like me is going to HELL!” types who give believers and clergy a bad name. Like a military chaplain, he is expected to willingly minister/counsel ALL regardless of their beliefs, and Evan does so, not just willingly but gladly.
Credits: Thanks to Empty Bacta Tank and Dr. Xerox from my gaming group for feedback and/or technical editing. EBT also provided a lot of feedback as I worked on the character portrait.
Linda Whitson
Latest posts by Linda Whitson (see all)
- Astral Projections – The Ripperdoc Is In - May 8, 2023
