Copyright 2015, Linda Whitson
Yule Queen
Concept: Cold Energy Controller Power Level: 10 (150pp)
Combat: Attack +3 [Unarmed +0], Attack +9 [Ice Blast +11]; Init +3
Defenses: Dodge +8, Parry +8, Toughness +12/+3*, Fortitude +8, Willpower +8
*without Force Field
Abilities: STR 0; STA 3; AGI 3; DEX 3; FIG 3; INT 2; AWE 4; PRE 2
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Assessment, Attractive, Daze (Intimidation), Fascinate (Expertise: Music), Power Attack, Precise Attack (Ranged, Cover), Teamwork
Skills: Expertise: Music 8 (+10), Expertise: Pop Culture 4 (+6), Insight 6 (+10), Intimidation 6 (+8), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 6 (+8), Ranged Combat: Ice Control 6 (+9)
Powers:
*A Cold Wind Blows (28pts): Flight 5 (900ft/60mph; 10pts), Force Field 9 (Impervious 9; 18pts)
*An Ice Person (11pts): Feature 1 (Quick Change – costume; 1pt), Immune 10 (all cold effects; 10pts)
*Ice Control (26pts): Array
*Icy Bolt: Ranged Damage 11; 22pts
*Icy Blast: Ranged Affliction 11 (Resisted and Overcome by Fortitude; Fatigued, Exhausted, Incapacitated); 1pt
*Icy Burst: Burst Area Ranged Damage 7; 1pt
*Ice Sculpture: Create 10 (Extra: Precise); 1pt
*Icy Slick: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 7 (Resisted and Overcome by Dodge, Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Prone, Extra: Extra Condition, Flaw: Limited Degree); 1pt
Complications:
Motivation: Doing good
Power Loss: Extreme Heat
Relationship: Boyfriend, Dr. Matt Burke
Equipment: Minor personal items (including several harps), comlink (free)
Abilities 40 + Defenses 19 + Advantages 8 + Skills 18 (36 Ranks) + Powers 65 = 150
Backstory: As a very small girl, Maryn Forrest met a superhero as part of a Make-A-Wish for her oldest brother, who didn’t have long to live. Twenty years later she would be one–a summoner of ice & snow–the Yule Queen.
Maryn and her middle brother Cal spent summers not far outside Emerald City with their grandfather, Hershel Forrest, a veteran of the Korean War, and his second wife Alicia. By the time Maryn started high school, she and Cal lived full time with them, after Maryn told the elder Forrests her now-divorced parents were bickering over who Had To take custody of Cal, who was gay.
Hershel and Alicia also encouraged Maryn’s interest in music more than her parents ever had. Maryn was a very talented musician who learned several instruments, including her favorite, the harp. Hershel and Cal even helped her build a celtic harp. While studying for her BA in Music Performance at Emerald City University, Maryn became harpist for the ECU Symphony, a seat she still holds.
This past year has been one of change in Emerald City, with the Silver Storm. Maryn was there that day, but managed–so she thought–to get undercover in time. Then came the Symphony’s annual Winter Holiday Concert. One of the last pieces was the Austrian Carol (“Still, still, still/One can hear the falling snow…”) As Maryn played the harp solo, snow flurries did fall in the concert hall!
Max Mars, a donor, was attending the concert and realized the snow was being created unwittingly by the harpist–who had to be a new Stormer, either a “late bloomer” from the Silver Storm, or the result of a later “micro storm.” To make sure no one else realized, Max had MarsTech immediately claim credit for the “surprise special effects.” At the post-concert donors’ reception, he asked Maryn to visit his office the next day, giving the impression he wanted to hire her to play for an event.
Expecting to meet with flunkies, she was surprised to be ushered into a meeting with Mr. Mars himself and several AEGIS officials–to be told she was a Stormer. And more surprised yet when the room temperature immediately plummeted forty degrees, and Mars led her to a decorative mirror that reflected a woman whose glacial skin and hair and ice-blue eyes faded to their usual blonde/fair/grey tones as she gazed.
“What did you bring – ask – me here for, Mr. Mars? If you’re looking for another Stormbreaker* for your superteam, wouldn’t you need someone with more ooomph than a few snowflakes?”
“Do you want to be a Stormbreaker?”
Maryn barely breathed, “I don’t know,” as he continued.
“I doubt snowflurries is your limit. Or air conditioning,” he smiled. “I suspect you can do a lot more if you wish, and if so you could be the newest Stormbreaker. If you want to, and I do hope you are willing to join them. Even if you don’t, it is in your best interest to find out the extent of your talents. MarsTech has facilities where you can try your powers as safely as possible. That’s what I am offering you.
“See what more you can do, how much–control–you have. Most importantly, we need to make sure you’re healthy and stay healthy and safe, as you learn. The Silver Storm damaged some of the Stormers, and some of them are vulnerable to their newfound powers. You need to be aware of that.”
Maryn, curious about her new powers, agreed. Her training, especially early on, was as much medical exams and scientific study, as training and practice. Initially, she could only “call” relatively small amounts of snow and drop the temperature noticeably but quickly learned to create and use ice. Early the next summer, she became a probationary Stormbreaker.
The MarsTech scientists who worked with Maryn had given her a nickname. Her file included a photo from an announcement of the Winter Concert of Maryn, dressed in a formal gown of red velvet and white faux fur with silk holly in her hair, so they called her the Yule Queen. Maryn liked the name and took it as her codename when she joined the Stormbreakers.
Maryn is in a serious relationship with Dr. Matt Burke, one of the first ECU doctors to step up to Administrator Vollins’ challenge to care for Stormers and their victims. He is also the Stormbreakers’ team doctor, doing medical research when he isn’t patching them up. Matt recently found out, to his delight, that Maryn is Yule Queen.
Description: Yule Queen’s skin appears icy, like a glacier, white with blue-green tinges and even hints of purple. Her hair is silver-white and blue and her eyes an inhuman ice-blue. Her costume is flowing and blue-white with white boots and fingerless gloves. For appearances or hanging out at the base, she often adds a full, hooded white robe. Maryn is a grey-eyed blonde.
*While the name is used for another organization in official materials, in our campaign, the Stormbreakers are the MarsTech-sponsored superteam.
Design notes: Yule Queen is my PC in an Emerald City Knights campaign that had been going for quite a while when I joined. So the original stats were PL11, equal to the veteran PCs’ PL. The stats presented here are slightly less powerful than the original. I opted for PL 10 since this is a common beginning PL for a campaign featuring full superheroes.
Yule Queen was inspired by Elsa from Frozen, of course. But there was also a practical side to the chosen concept–Energy Controller was one of the archetypes that the Stormbreakers didn’t have.
Play notes: Yule Queen almost always stays airborne in combat, even if only a foot or so above the ground. While some of Yule Queen’s powers and power stunts can be lethal (“Going for the kill” with her Damage powers or power-stunting her Icy Blast as a cumulative Affliction) she tries to both protect bystanders–her priority–and not permanently harm even villains. Typically, her first combat move is to use Ice Sculpture to make a protective barricade for “civilians” or a cage to entrap the most dangerous opponents. Only then will she bring out her attack powers.
Yule Queen’s favored power stunts for her Ice Control array are:
Ice Shards: Ranged Damage 8 (Multi-attack [-1/target for multiple targets], Accurate 1)
Snow Storm: Ranged Cloud Area Affliction 8 (Resisted by Dodge and Overcome by Fortitude; Vision Impaired, Vision Disabled, Vision Unaware; Limited to 1 Sense)
Cold Projection: Environment (Intense Cold) <11
Cold Projection: Environment (Intense Cold) <5, Impede Movement (-1 Speed)
Cold Projection: Environment (Extreme Cold) <5
Credits: Jon Stevens did the original (PL 11) stats these are based on. Technical editing by Empty Bacta Tank.
Linda Whitson
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