Champions – The Atlanteans and Seawrack

“Atlantis” was never much of a civilization by current standards. It occupied a modest cluster of low-lying volcanic islands, had a rather small population, and had a copper or very early bronze age technology. While they did have record-keeping it relied (as with other cultures of the time) on spells to imprint information on crystals for others to experience. The slowly-rising sea levels as the last ice age drew to an end, along with a modest upswing in volcanic activity, forced the islanders to move – and the approach of the Rho-Field simply made things worse. The fact that humanity still shunned gathering in large groups at this point didn’t help either.

Several groups departed for one or another of the “Hundred Realms”, others migrated to higher (continental) ground, and a few – people being people – refused to leave until the last moment, when the Earth was already within the fringes of the Rho-Field. Sadly, with magical dimensional and interstellar travel now near-impossible, and ship-building methods reliant on ambient-magic spells that were rapidly losing effect, they had no good choices. Some set sail in unseaworthy vessels – but others used the transforming powers of Uthorian’s Danse (an Invocation) to colonize the nearby seas.

Unfortunately, even when transformed by the Uthorian’s Danse, Homo Sapiens Sapiens Oceanus requires ambient magic to survive; there’s no simple biological solution that will allow an earthly mammal to breathe under water. Changes that radical would leave them no longer even remotely human. Thus the new People of the Sea could only survive in the long term by clustering around magical nexi – and so the survivors of “Atlantis” reverted to small, territorial, tribes, which (since such trips were difficult and draining) contacted each other only rarely, and mostly to exchange marriageable youngsters. Similarly, while it was occasionally possible for them to expand to new power nexi, such colonization projects were few and far between.

And so things remained until recently. With Earth exiting the Rho-Field, ambient magic has risen across the world and it has become possible for the tribes to begin expanding, mixing, and taking control of their watery lands. Sadly, the abyssal plains are far too barren to support anything but a few hermits, but there is quite a lot of good territory along the continental shelves. This may lead to a bit of conflict with the land-dwellers who fish there, but at the moment the tribes are still not very numerous. Still, occasional adventurous members of the subspecies have ventured on to the land and made contact with the people there.

“Seawrack” (his actual name is partially supersonic, and is quite unpronounceable by baseline humans) is one of those. A tribal guardian and explorer, Seawrack has also mastered his peoples greater (ritual) magics and has learned to channel the power of the magical nexus he was born at into his sword, giving his attacks a remarkable potency. While he’s no high-tier superhero, he is about as close to being one as a small tribe can be expected to produce.

Recently the folk of the land have been moving closer to his people’s home territories – and his people wish to expand at last. Ergo, a number of the seafolk have come ashore; talking is better than fighting – and no one wishes to raise the great leviathans of the deep.

The Aquatic Powers package is – like any of the standard power packages – available to non-heroic humans as their one allowable power package. It has no effective cost (and does not count against their point limits) since,  as usual, it’s built-in disadvantages outweigh it’s benefits. Full superhumans cannot take power packages; they can build identical sets of powers if they like, but they do have to pay for everything they buy. On the plus side, that also means that they can have the powers without a tremendous overload of disadvantages.

 

Seawrack

 

Value	Characteristic	Points
15/30	STR	5
18	DEX	24
13/18	CON	6
10	BODY	0
8	INT	-2
11	EGO	2
10	PRE	0
8	COM	-1
6	PD	0
6	ED	2
3/6	SPD	2
10	REC	0
36	END	0
34	STUN	0
	Total	38

 

Points	Powers	END
40	Aquatic Powers; Visible (Aquatic Adaptions are blatantly obvious): -¼; Side Effects: 30/Half, -½; Generic Limitation (Side Effects Cannot Be Avoided.): -½
(5)	Elemental Control . Aquatic Powers (5-pt reserve)
a-8	Armor / Scales and Tough Body (6 PD/3 ED)
b-5	+5 CON
c-10	Swimming (+5″, 7″, NC: 28″); Non-Combat Multiplier: ×4, +5; Non-Combat (MPH): 45; Reduced END: Zero, +½	0
d-17	+15 STR; Reduced END: Zero, +½	0
e-10	Active Sonar
f-5	Detect Electrical Fields (+0 to PER); Time Required: Instant, +2; Range: Ranged, +5
(3)	Ultrasonic Hearing
(5)	Breathe in Unusual Environment / Underwater
(2)	Doesn’t Eat, Excrete or Sleep; Generic Limitation (Can easily handle excess salt, raw fish and seaweed, and gets most of their water by breathing. Still needs to eat, sleep, and drink though.): -1
(1)	Life Support: Intense Heat/Cold; Generic Limitation (Only to survive in frigid water): -1
(20)	Enhanced Magical Potential (Nexial Link); Basically a 20-point credit towards buying magical powers.
125	Aquatic Disadvantages; These include the 50-odd points worth of disadvantages that comes as side effects with the powers AND the points that (over-)pay for the package.Like most power-packages, a genuine superhero is far, FAR, better off building his or her own powers from scratch – even if he or she does decide to buy a set of racial abilities.
(15)	Distinctive Features / Merhuman; Concealability: Concealable, 10; Reaction: Always noticed & major reaction, +5
(15)	Will slowly sicken and die if in an area with insufficient magic (Frequently, Greatly)
(15)	Slime Coating: needs to remain moist, smells “fishy”, has trouble handling many objects. (All the Time, Slightly)
(20)	Susceptibility to Heat (Cannot Sweat) (2d6 STUN/Minute); Condition: Very Common, +15
(30)	Vulnerability to Fire (1½× STUN and BODY); Attack: Very Common, +15
(30)	Vulnerability to Electricity (Slime Coating) (1½× STUN and BODY); Attack: Very Common, +15
6	Elemental Control: Master Swordsman (15-pt reserve); OAF (Sword): -1; Linked (to Strength): -½
a-6	Armor; Parrying (10 PD/10 ED).
b-7	+12 DEX; Doesn’t Affect Figured: -½.
c-4	+3 SPD; Generic Limitation (Only with sword): -1.
d-6	Missile Deflection (All Ranged Attacks, None, OCV 11); Deflect Attacks: Normal, +0; Deflection Bonus: 5, 10; OCV: 11.
15	Arcane Blade Multipower (37-pt reserve); OAF (Sword): -1; Linked (to Strength): -½; Paid for by racial credit.
u-2	Hand-to-Hand Attack (10d6, Total 16d6); Range: 0; Reduced END: Half, +¼.	1
u-2	2d6 Killing Attack (HTH) (Total 4d6); Range: 0; Reduced END: Half, +¼.	1
u-1	7d6 Bio-Electric Energy Blast; Range: 175; Versus: ED.	3
6	1d6 30-Point Equipment Allowance Aid (Fade/month, Max. 30); Range: 0; Affects: Single Power of Special Effect, +¼; Extra Time: 1 hour, -2½; Only activates in armories, labs, or between outings: -1½; Personal Only: -1; Difficult to Dispel: ×4, +½; Increased END: ×10, -4; This allows a character to haul along 60 CP worth of customized gear.	20
6	2d6 Aid (Ritual Magic) (Fade/turn, Max. 90); Range: 0; Trigger: Changeable, +½; Points fade instantly after power used: -½; Fragile Focus: -¼; Gestures: Instant Power, -¼; Incantation: Instant Power, -¼; Increased END: ×10, -4; Costs END: -½; Side Effects: 60/All, -1; Visible (Easily detected by other mystics at fairly long ranges): -¼; Requires exotic locations or components at the option of the game master: Half, -1; Affects: Single Power of Special Effect, +¼; Charges: 1, -1¼; Recoverable Charges: -2 lev; Extra Time: 5 min., -2; Focus: Obvious Accessible, -1; Maximum of three rituals per day and seven prepared effects.: -1; Requires Skill Roll (using a relevant magical knowledge once per ritual): -½; Ritual Magic requires a bag full of odd components (starting off with candles, chalk, parchment, incense, a brazier and charcoal, pens and ink, odd bits of jewelry, a wand, a knife, a mirror, holy water, oil, and a bell, even before getting into the odder stuff required for particular rituals), an hour of chanting, gesturing, and fooling about with the materials, and a skill check with a relevant knowledge skill. If you succeed, you’ve built up the power to be used – which can either be unleashed immediately, or be saved to be unleashed with a short invocation later. If you fail, the magic goes wild, with unpredictable (but generally bad) effects. Ritual effects can have active point totals of up to 40 points if prepared anywhere, 60 if prepared at a minor nexus, 80 if prepared at a major nexus, and 90 if you have an appropriate extradimensional source of power to draw on.	20
41	Total Powers

 

Points	Skills, Talents, Perks	Roll
10	+5 level w/with Sword
5	Knowledge: The Seas	14-
3	Survival	11-
3	Acrobatics	13-
21	Total Skills, Talents, Perks

 

Cost	Equipment
7	Scale Mail Armor (6 PD/6 ED) ; OIF: -½; Generic Limitation (Conventional Technology): -1
5	+6 DEX: Shield ; Doesn’t Affect Figured: -½; OAF: -1; Generic Limitation (Only for adding to DCV): -1 ; Adds +2 DCV
5	Helm of Mind Shielding: Mental Defense (12 pts) ; Add to Total; OAF: -1
3	+5 Survival: Tribal Supplies ; OAF: -1; Generic Limitation (Conventional Technology): -1
10	Medicine Bag; Focus: Inobvious Accessible, -½; Visible (Functions are clearly apparent to anyone looking for magic): -¼; Fragile Focus: -¼
(7)	7″ Air Swimming (Gliding) (NC: 14″) ; Non-Combat Multiplier: ×2, +0; Non-Combat (MPH): 31
(7)	Regeneration (1 BODY/5 min.) ; Regenerate: Standard, +0
(2)	Running (+1″, 7″, NC: 14″) 1; Non-Combat Multiplier: ×2, +0; Non-Combat (MPH): 4
(5)	Mind Link: Tribal Shaman ; Minds: One Specific Mind, +5; Number of Minds: 1, +0; Distance: Single Planet, +0; Dimension: Current, +0; Link with: Anyone, +0
30	Total Equipment

 

50+	Disadvantages
10	Overconfidence (Common, Moderate)
15	Loves to Fight (Common, Strong)
10	Public Identity
5	Rivalry: Other Swordsmen; Situation: Professional, 5; Position: Equal, +0; Rival: NPC, +0
5	Poor
45	Total Disadvantages

 

COSTS:

Char.

Powers

Total

Total

Disadv.

Base

Exp.

38

+

62

=

100

100

=

45

+

50

+

5

 

OCV	DCV	ECV	Mental Def.	PD/rPD	ED/rED	Phases
6	6	4	12	28/22	25/19	2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

 

Seawrack is capable of slugging it out with a light-duty brick or martial artist – but is pretty heavily specialized. If whacking it with a sword won’t work, and he doesn’t have a ritual prepared, he won’t be able to do much.