One fine day–I got bored, so I opened up Carrara, the 3D art software I use, and started playing. I took a photo of the street outside our house as a backdrop (less work and less RAM) and created a couple supers and a “monster” for a fight scene. And this quickie art project inspired some Mutants & Masterminds characters.
Lady Gothique is the final entry in my Super Street Fight “limited edition comic.” Given her theme, Halloween is a propitious day for her debut. Unlike the two previous characters, Obisidian and Lightning Lancer, Gothique is intended as an NPC villain.
Name: Lady Gothique
Power Level: 12
Concept: Extra-dimensional Evil Witch
BSTR 1; STA 2*/0; AGI 4; DEX 5; FIG 0; INT 7*/2; AWE 7*/2; PRE 5
*Enhanced
Advantages: Artificer, Benefits (Alternate Identity [current host],Cipher 2), Daze 2 (Deception & Intimidation), Improved Initiative, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise: Magic)
Skills: Deception +10 (+15), Expertise: Botany/herbology +8 )+15), Expertise: Magic +13 (+20), Intimidation +10 (+15), Insight +4 (+9), Ranged Combat (Arcane [array] spells) +6 (+11), Stealth +4 (+9)
Powers:
Arcane Array
Arcane Domination: Mind Control 13, Perception Ranged Cumulative Affliction
(Dazed, Compelled, Controlled), Resisted and Overcome by Will, Insidious
Arcane Blast: Ranged Damage 13
Arcane Chains: Ranged Affliction 13 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Hindered and Vulnerable,Defenseless and Immobile), Extra Condition (+1), Limited Degree (-1)
Protection-spelled costume: Enhanced Fortitude +5. Protection 10. Removable (flat -1/5 PP)
Veil Self: Invisibility Concealment 10 (All Senses), Limited to Minds, Resistible by Will (DC 20).Concentration duration (-1)
Mystical Awareness: Sense Magic 1, Acute, Analytical
Life-stealer: Immunity to aging; Enhanced INT +5, AWE +5, & STA +2
Equipment: Other magical devices and equipment per GM
Offense
Initiative +8
Unarmed +0 : Close [unarmed], Damage 1
Ranged + 11: Arcane Damage
Defense
Dodge: 18
Parry: 22
Fortitude: 10**/2
Toughness: 2
Will: 14
**With costume (removable)
Complications:
Straight Fs in Science: On Mana-Earth science lags greatly behind magic. So Lady Gothique has very little knowledge of it, and doesn’t believe most of what she has learned. (The way most people in this reality view magic.) So she can be fooled or tripped up by it.
No Empathy At All
Backstory: The multiverse includes myriad Alternate Earths, some of them much richer in magic/mana than this Earth. On one of them–called “Mana-Earth” here–the Sorceress-Queen Erzsébet reigned for centuries, buying her long life with the blood, life-force, and mana of countless maids and youths. A few times a century, to conceal her unaging nature, she employed an even darker ritual.
Instead of a simple ritual-murder, Erzsébet would possess the body of a comely and promising young mage (of either gender), driving out and destroying their very essence and soul! The evil ritual was followed by a lavish royal funeral and coronation of the Sorceress-Queen in her new, stolen body, held out as successor to the “deceased” ruler. (Erzsébet was not her original name, but that of her last host-“heir.”)
Even when powerful sorcerers, mage-scholars, and other rulers began to suspect the truth of the “dynasty,” nothing was done to end Erzsébet’s vile reign. Until, after some 7oo years, Queen Erzsébet plotted to expand her lands, seducing and suborning a neighboring king’s younger son. The hapless foreign prince rued his treason, tried to repair the damage, and died cruelly in the lesser ritual. Their sovereignty threatened, neighboring rulers finally allied with each other and the mages.
After most of the continent was laid waste by magical and conventional warfare, Erzsébet was defeated. The victorious sorcerers and sorceresses magically bound her and thrust her through The Veils into The Oblivion (as they called the void between dimensions). Her books and notes followed–so the mages claimed–and she troubled Mana-Earth no more. Thus ended the tale of Sorceress-Queen Erzsébet’s rule in Mana-Earth.
Unfortunately, her tale has a sequel–set in Earth-Prime (or whatever dimension your supers campaign calls home). As Mana-Earth’s most powerful mages were chanting the banishing rite for Erzsébet, an ambitious Earth-Prime wizard was summoning a powerful extradimensional “demon” to further his schemes–and instead pulled Erzsébet into our reality! This was some 70 years ago as time flows here. She used that unknown wizard to learn her way around this reality. Not only was Earth-Prime much weaker in mana than Mana-Earth, the societies were very different, and there was science, full of concepts she had no reference for, and didn’t really credit. Once she felt comfortable, he became just one more victim to augment her own magical and life energies.
While very, very frustrated at being much less powerful–both magically and politically–than on Mana-Earth, Lady Gothique is managing quite well. There have been plenty of young, or not-so-young, people over the decades who have fancied themselves sorcerers or spiritualists and died to renew her or become the latest host. But she took her last host in the late ’80s, and is now seeking a new one…Could the next victim of this horrific, evil Host Ritual be a PC in your game or one of their allies or friends?…
Design Notes: I wrote the stats with a little help from the Quickstart Character Generator for M&M, included in the Gamemaster’s Kit and the Deluxe Hero’s Handbook. Since she is intended as a villain, Lady Gothique’s power points aren’t strictly accounted for, per “Power Level & Non-Player Characters,” page 26 in the Deluxe Hero’s Handbook. Erzsébet’s motivation is to grow her magical powers to the level they were before her execution-turned-exile and then rule in this dimension. The lesser magic of the campaign world makes these much harder, but not impossible, goals. She may work with other villains, mainly lesser mystical types she can dominate–until she needs them as sacrifices to keep up her youth and mana, or as her next host. If she does work with non-magical or -mystical villains, it will be a short-term arrangement, only for as long as she feels she needs them. And feel free to add spells to the Arcane Array.
To stay under the mystical “radars” of this dimension, she takes advantage of its powerful magical practitioners being focused on other things–such as Beacon’s fading strength and consequent desperation to find a successor–and takes pains to avoid someone who is known to such powerful mystics. Preferably, her victims are not likely to be missed by anyone. The Lady’s ignorance of science (a much less powerful “force” in her home dimension) and consequently discounting it, is a weakness exploitable even, or especially, by non-mystical PCs. For example, she has no clue that the mineral she stole is a mildly radioactive compound that emits α particles in a unique pattern–much less that there are Geiger counters and other instruments that might help the heroes locate it. All she knows is that to her Mystical Sense it appears the same as a rare spell component in Mana-Earth.
Using Lady Gothique as a Hero?: It is possible, although player and GM would need to go over the Power Point math and scale back some abilities. The backstory would have to be altered as well. Perhaps the essence of Erzsébet’s current Earth-born host wasn’t completely destroyed in the possession ritual and she (or he) has now managed to heal enough to retake control, perhaps with the intervention of a powerful Earth practitioner. Reputation and possibly Enemy(ies) are likely Complications for a heroic Lady Gothique, who would still unfortunately have to deal with the fallout of Queen Erzsébet’s crimes and sins in this dimension.
Creepy Fact: I named Lady Gothique Erzsébet after the so-called Bloody Countess, Elizabeth Báthory of Hungary (original Hungarian: Ecsedi Báthory Erzsébet), the lady said to have bathed in the blood of virgins. While her beauty routine is probably pure folklore, the torture-murders of women and girls–the number of victims ranges from the official 80 to witness’ claims of hundreds–for which she and four servants were convicted are historic fact and way more horrific. Lady Gothique’s ritual was also inspired by the Bloody Countess’ legend. The link above and her Wikipedia entry, which provides many more gory details, make good Halloween reading. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you: if you can’t deal with accounts of fictional or real serial killers, don’t click the links!)
Feedback & Techical Editing: Empty Bacta Tank
Artwork: “Super Street Fight” and “Lady Gothique” are © 2016, Linda Whitson
Linda Whitson
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