Capes: Origins

CAPES
ORIGINS

The world is never as it seems.

Behind every tree, every brick of stonework, beneath every street, behind every cloud, lies a secret untold, a story waiting to be heard and, inevitably, lies.

Some are secret by conspiracy, others, through simple ignorance and neglect, and others, perhaps most horrifically, through simply willing disillusionment by those not wishing to believe their lying eyes. This is the world you have been born into, a world on the cusp of change, where the unwise and the unwilling will be thrust into the cold light of day and forced to decide how best they play their parts. Will you sacrifice all that you have, all that you are, for the betterment of those around you? Will you enforce what you think is best on the unwilling, come what may? Or will you enact your own will for your own benefit upon the world at large, and let the weak suffer what they must?

Can you live with the consequences?

You'll have to.

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SpoilerWelcome to Capes! The DC to Mask's Marvel... Or the Marvel to its DC... Darkhorse? Darkhorse. Lets go with Darkhorse.

In this game you are, of course, a superheroic being, just coming into their powers and abilities. Whether these are magical in nature, scientific, raw skill or something else entirely. There are of course a few caveats.

No superman. Playing something like 1930s Superman where he's superstrong with super endurance and can Jump-Good is relatively fine, but anything else other than that is absolute horseshit. It is also advised to, at least at the start, to not go full on Joker levels megalomaniacal villain. Sure your end goal may be to wipe out the West Coast, but try not to be too sociopathic too early, escalating violence will result in escalating response from both authorities and opposing Heroes and Villains.

Silly super hero rules will apply such as base level disguises. Yes the stupid Eye Covers will hide your identity by and large. Power levels will be relatively balanced but not too strictly enforced, meaning if, God help you, you're a skill based character who knows ALL THE MARTIAL ARTS and you're stuck fighting Thor you might want to think of other ways of going about it or else extricating yourself from the situation entirely.

Similarly, I will negate nerfing the more powerful characters and instead institute an articulate weakness of my own choosing that the player will not know about until they discover it in the story. It won't be anything as crippling as kryptonite effectively reducing you to a worm, as that is effectively knocking a player out of fight entirely, but this is in place so players have something they need to keep secret from other players' characters (and metagaming in this regard will be frowned upon in typical Gallo fashion) and to give the weaker characters a potential edge on the more powerful ones. This will be in addition to any weaknesses the players themselves decide to add to their characters, not in replacement of them.

Mid tier characters in the higher end of the power spectrum will have this secret-weakness rule applied to them if they have insufficient weaknesses to them, but this will be case by case since by definition, mid tier characters are hard to judge. Players who are pretty much human with human weaknesses wont have these secret weaknesses, since being human IS the weakness. Players can add weaknesses to their own characters anyway if it makes sense for the idea they're going with.

Minor player crossover events will be determined by player activity first and foremost (its pointless to crossover characters where one player is super active and the other isn't) and will be primarily focused on smaller adventures in comparison to Crisis events which involve everyone everywhere.

This game is aiming to be a bit lighter on the harsh realism of Masks, but of course, this being a Gallogame, the darkness will come sooner or later. Heroes and villains will be more competent than the police, especially when it comes to dealing with super bullshit.

I will from the outset be accepting 6 players to start with. And applications will run for a week or until all the spaces are filled, whichever happens first.

Secret Identity: The name you're character is most commonly known by, nicknames and all.
Alias: What you're known by to the world at large, if you so choose to pick a name for yourself at all. Others may choose one for you if you do not.
Description: What does your character look like? How tall are they? What hair colour and so on. What kind of person are they? What are their characteristics, warts and all?
Biography: What does their character get up to in life? If they have powers, how did they come to possess them, or, if they dont have them to start and you'd rather Roleplay them achieving their powers, explain how you'd want them to acquire their powers. Are they more a skill based characters? If so, how so, and what skills do they possess and how many? Are they intelligent, super or otherwise? Are they rich? If so, they can still be rich and skilled, but I will be capping off their wealth at 10 million dollars, rich enough to be useful but still in danger of running dry. If you would, for whatever reason, rather dump everything into being rich, you will be given a cap of 10 billion dollars, but you will not start off with any skills or above University grade intelligence, but I will require justification on how they have their wealth. You can of course, go on to train up in skills if you choose the uber rich path, just understand you'll be spending a lot of game time training. Which is fine if you liked the Namek arc of DBZ.
Costume Description: What duds does your character wear when out fighting CRIME?
Character Abilities: As stated before your character can have a number of abilities and powers. Perhaps they are skilled based, master of several martial arts and weaponry, perhaps they are very intelligent, a mad scientist perhaps, perhaps their power are magically based, or biologically based, either mutant or alien in nature. Or, perhaps their just stinking rich. You can mix and match but be warned, the more powers you have, the more watered down they are.
Home City: Self Explanatory, whats you're city called? Does it have any notable nicknames?
City description: Your city will be based in America, preferably the continental US for the sake of logistics, please describe it here, where is it located, how big is it, what are its defining features, its cultural distinctions and aesthetic looks, quirks and facets that make it stand out. Home cities will be their own unique entities and will not be replacing any of the standard cities in Real Life America, New York is still New York even if Gotham is a mile down the road.
Friends, family and associates: At the least I need to know your character's family histories up to their grandparents on both sides, including cousins, aunts and uncles, as well as brothers and sisters, as well as close friends, and others that know and work with them. Totally not for nefarious purposes you understand.

Secret Identity: Obscura
Alias: Michelle Quinton
Description: Blonde 25 year old woman. Usually wears a grey hoodie, or pink jacket with grey accents. Usually the former. She has a curly ponytail.
Biography: Lives a fairly ordinary life apart from being a crime-fighting vigilante (she would've been arrested if it weren't for her powers.) Her segue into crime-fighting was when she and her mom was mugged by a dude, and almost killed by a stab wound. Her mother is currently hospitalized (stabbed in abdomen).
Costume Description: Usually wears her normal clothing (no need for a disguise if your power is your disguise), but sometimes wears an expensive dark red trench coat, sunglasses, and red lipstick simply for cool points (imagine her on a skyscraper's roof wearing that).
Character Abilities: Ability to make people forget things and not notice things. For example, she can make people not notice her planting a dangerous bomb. Inherited from her family. She uses knives, a rag, and a pistol for offense.
Home City: Ashwood
City description: City in Georgia. Basically Atlanta, except somewhere different.
Friends, family and associates: Father - Mark Quinton Jr., Mother - Ashley Preston, Maternal uncle - Leon Preston, Maternal grandfather - Harry Preston, Maternal Grandmother - Mary Preston, Paternal Grandfather - Mark Quinton Sr., Paternal Grandmother - Michelle Quinton. Maternal side (grandma, Ashley) have her power.

Secret Identity: Dr Dee Dotkar!

Alias: Doctor Denuo

Description: In his new skeletal form, Dr Dee Dotkar has a looming and proud bearing, 6 foot 3, even without fleshy bits, and not counting a ridiculously tall top hat. His skeletal body is overlayed with mysterious metals and an ethereal green flame. His bones have been bleached white, and, like scrimshaw, had arcane symbols etched all over his form. Some of these grooves have been filled with fine metal lines, whilst other parts of his body has large, steampunkish devices bolted into it, with tubes to his powerpack. This allows scientific regulators to interact with the magical properties of his body. 80% of his frame has been gilded and built into a metallic apparatus to allow him to move his body finely, and encapsule his inner flame. Clothing wise, when not out on heroics, he wears either practical lab coats, or fine business wear, old fashioned in his style, but still. And goggles, to keep his eye flames from spilling out. Fine gold rimmed goggles with multiple lenses, some with ancient runes or filters built in. Small and fine tools and devices are built all over his frame,like a walking Swiss army knife, and his hands particularly have options for useful attachments.

His voice has a tinny sound, and comes from a voice box built into his neck, that reads his speech by measuring fluctuations in his spiritual form as it wills speech. It can alter it's volume greatly and has some other basic audio functions.

Biography: Very much, a mad scientist. Doctor Dee Dotkar, was born in the mid-18th century and amassed a wealth of funds and money, running factories and businesses, and not being very nice about it. He was born a noble, and was cut-throat and ruthless in his practices and career. Not the cruelest employer, especially for his era, he worked people hard and for not much, but offered basic medical care and safe workplaces, and offered fast tracks and apprentice-ships for family members of good or troubled workers. His family specialised in medical areas, buying hospitals, factories making medicine, quilts for bed, construction for repairs, etc. He got a doctorate himself to understand the area, then was thrown into the business end by his father, showing a keen intellect and work ethic for what he focused upon.

Then, war happened. Luckily, his family were fairly sheltered from it, Doctor Dee Doktar did a brief stint as an officer, partly also to be an ambassador for his family's business, but he did find himself seeing the horrors of war despite his attempts to cushion himself. As the war dragged on, it wore more and more on him, to see the make-shift hospitals and hack-surgeons, the deaths piling up and those who would survive. Once the war ended, Dee began his own projects with new fervor, taking on what responsibilities he could. His father stepped back from the company a few years later and Dee took over, and set into process his own private projects and facilities. The main one of which was to research methods of cheating death, for Dee had a fear in him now, and a dream. A dream to save the world, and let no such nightmare ravage the world again. Unfortunately, a few decades later, WW2 began, he did what he could to prepare supplies and minimise the war politically, and saw his attempts as futile.

Dee siphoned off funds and grants, making secret contracts and organisations to continue his works, handing out his own hidden manuscripts to his scientists. During the war, many ancient secrets had been unearthed, and Dee, while lacking favour for the occult arts, had found some respect for them after study, and used the cover of invasions and defences to send his own mercenaries around the world to salvage artifacts. Those he wasn't interested in, he donated to British museums, and others he had hoarded. As old age and time wore down on him though, as the second great war began to wind down, he had his body frozen and prayed that he would awaken again. Which he did, in a fashion.

He would awoke soon to find that his company, and scientists that had worked with him and all that he had recognised near gone. 2019 is a very different time to 1945, the "Doktar Corporation" was now the 'Mercurius' foundation and the money he'd set up to have himself raised and his plans finished had just run out. What was grating was that, it seems that the work he'd started, injecting himself with strange elixers, the sacrifices of eldritch idols and tokens to artifacts of power melded with his plans of super-science that the scientists had to both follow and invent necessary tools for, had been roughly figured out. About 20 years ago. Instead, the scientists working there had kept bleeding the funds dry on their own researches and selling off patents for his inventions and ideas that had been incorporated into modern technology with only meager movements to returning Dee Doktar to an animate state. Most of them had scoffed at the notes of Magiteck spell-science that promised to make up for the limits of scientific methods, to meet the process half-way. His modified skeletal frame had been pulled from the sterile work station, put into the final apparatus of symbols and a rough-shod slapdash attempt made at following the last of his commands by a bunch of drunken lab technicians and engineers, half celebrating their final night there, and half curious to see if anything would happen.

It didn't.

At least until, alone, back in the original cold storage tank he'd entered into, in a storehouse in downtown New York, ancient carved runes flared to life in his make-shift crypt. Old and un-cared for engines whirred to life, sputtering as they did so and making worrying pinging noises, and the inside of his chamber flared with green flame and the skeletal frame, that had been reinforced and oiled with metals of gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead and mercury that became a strange new metal around his bones, moved, and Dee woke up.

Costume Description: A very victorian, regal coat, a dark red and black mix of military and laboratory, but dripping with style and finery. A little bit of steampunk bleeds into the clothing, and a lot of gothic, with little bone buttons, skull ornaments on the shoulders and cuff-links. He wears bone white gloves, a tall neckline, fine military boots, a belt of numerous pouches and a top hat with a small bandolier around it. He also drops the mask and illusion, revealing his bare skull face, the jaw under the high neckline, apart from some steampunk googles and green flames begin to bleed out of the gaps of his clothing, in his empty eyes and mouth, giving a worrying aura. Also, a backpack/powerpack plugged into himself where he keeps his heavier tools.

Character Abilities: An excellent intellect, some old but still usable cash, and a new undying body, sort of. Doctor Dee Dotkar is absolutely a mad scientist of a very old school, who needs to catch up on recent scientific advancements of modern times. His new undead mind seems to have quickened, in it's long rest and new non-fleshy green-flamey form, to great new heights, remembering clearly his earliest memories that had been fading in his old age, and capable of feats of mathematics and comprehension that would have impossible to even his more prime moment of intellect before.

He has a few accounts and trust funds set up still to give him some money, hidden behind passwords and false identities, if he can access them somehow in his current state, but his family company is lost to him now, so he needs to find some way of making proper money quick.

Dee also, no longer needs to breath, or eat, or drink, or even clean himself really. But, lest he risk falling apart or exploding from the frankly shitty job his body has been put through, since it is quite, quite unstable sadly, he must keep a formulaic regulator nearby, and a fuel source of metals to stabilise and replenish his energy. This will be his powerpack backpack later. He can keep himself going off raw materials if he doesn't take any decent damage, but to repair his form from serious blows, he requires a lab to alchemise vials and downtime to settle his ectoplasmic spiritual form to it's host body.

He is a little stronger than a normal human being, he could lift up an end of a car, maybe flip it, and is a little faster too thanks to this strength. He's not really any tougher than a human being, and can bleed in a form too, since chips or breaks to his bones cause the green flame that makes up his identity and energy will bleed out in a more physical form of a greenish mercury-like metal. He also doesn't scab over or heal unless he can take time to absorb metals like when he feeds, the purer the faster, and it's never very fast even with extremely rare and pure metals.

Home City: Sigvaledt.

City description: A large town in New York State, north of New York City, and west of Massachusetts. Dee 'lives' there at an old bunker under a warehouse that he'd personally bought and was still in his name. Built in the cold war Era when crazy architects really got a change to shine working under paranoid old rich bastards, mostly just empty space currenty. Sigvaledt itself is on the river Hudson, two halves of it split by the River. The town itself gathers power from a large hydro powered damn, and also filters and monitors the water. The west half of town is a little small and better off than the east half, which is mostly residential compared to the upper scale and business orientated compared to the west half. Dee's bunker is at the frayed edge of Sigvaledt, which has expanded since it was built originally so now rather than the warehouse being outside of town, it's on that frayed edge between city and nothing.

It is a little smaller than detroit, with a population of 550,000ish. It's been experiencing an economic boom after investments in hydroelectricity and a push towards green power sources, building solar panels, planting trees and winning several awards for eco-friendliness. The east side of the city has less pretty parks and funding to pretty it up and take care of itself, but does okay for now. There is a slight political schism since the richer sponsors live in the west side and fund and prop up their candidates, and control a lot of the labour force and city income, such as the computer companies in the west side, the damn in the center and the factories in the east side. Think a little of how Gotham is just down the road from Metropolis, make the distinction less jarring with much less horrific Gothic architecture and insane heights of buildings and overpasses and you'll get the idea (assuming you watched the old batman and superman cartoons)

Friends, family and associates:
Friends:
Family: His young nephew, now old Darius Doktar, who runs a clinic in New York. Married to Deirdre Doktar, and have a son Damian Doktar who is also in school to become a doctor, and a daughter Dora Dokrar who is a climbing CEO in the Mercius foundation.
Associates: Edgar Jefferson, the poor lab junkie who was put in charge of looking over the inventory of the warhouse Dr Dee Doktar woke up in.

Secret Identity: Erich Helms

Alias: The Red Sorcerer

Description: Erich is a middling height (5'9") man in his late 20s. He has short dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and a Hungarian-style mustache. When he's not out as his alter-ego, he usually dresses sharp, in vests and starched button-down shirts. When he goes out as the Red Sorcerer, he wears his trademark burgundy robes lined with the gold thread that forms the magical sigils he's woven into it. Erich is a bit distant in his personal life, focusing very much on his work and not letting anyone get too close. Closeness burns.

Biography: Erich Helms was not always the man he is. He was once a law student, a young man with a bright and ideal future. That future burned away from him. His family was well-off, at least enough to send him to law school. He had a good education and a good life. But things took a turn when he met the person who would become his lover, his rival, and in the end, his regret. Their name was Ester Finch, and they were a whirlwind, an enigma, and it was a terrible, terrible mistake to get involved with them.

Erich met Ester in the law library one late evening studying for an exam. He'd seen them around before, and something drew him to that androgynous figure, those piercing gold eyes, and that seemingly effortless knowledge of everything, including the law. He approached them for study help, and they stared at him and said, "I can help you, but you might regret it." Erich didn't listen. He thought they were just being shy and self-deprecating - they didn't seem to have any friends at all. He started hanging out with them, learning from them, getting closer to them. They grew up out in the countryside, home-schooled by a single father who was a librarian. They read a lot. They learned a lot.

One evening Ester stumbled upon a book in the library that didn't seem to have a catalogue number or a barcode or any indication that it should have existed. They went to Erich, and he made the decision to take it out of the library. It seemed to be a book on law, but not any jurisdiction they could recognize or cases they had ever heard of. And something was strange about the words on the paper. They seemed to move when you looked at them from the corner of your eye, and they somehow didn't quite seem like English even though both Erich and Ester could read them. They dug deeper into it, and suddenly things clicked. The book described a contract, a pact between student and teacher, which promised an exchange of power in return for a set time of service. Finally the book ended with a cryptic note, scrawled in pen - "If you call, someone will come."

The secrets promised were too tempting for Erich and Ester to ignore. They read the provisions of the contract carefully, and it seemed to be fairly straightforward. An apprenticeship, several out clauses, reasonable requirements of service, nothing seemed out of place. So they decided to try it out. They drafted two copies, exactly as laid out in the book, leaving the name of the master empty. Then, after a handshake to seal the deal, each signed their name. At that moment time seemed to stop, space slip sideways. The two found themselves looking at a woman in red, who smiled down at them.

"Ah, good. It's been a while since I've had worthy students."

For a year, the red woman taught them in the secret ways of the world. Magic has always been a part of this world, an invisible set of threads connecting everything, an ocean in which we all floated, an energy within each thing. There were many ways of accessing magic, she told them. In the ancient past women would weave threads of magic on their looms to ensure good harvests and good health. Their weaves were powerful and successful, but they came with unintended consequences. Many were burned as witches by ignorant fools goaded on by lords and churches and cities and other such institutions trying to solidify their control. Other magic existed too - the mystic magic of hermits and ascetics, the quiet magic of monks which came only through a lifetime of prayer and could only be used in very limited ways. But at some point in history, a new way was discovered - the Hidden Law. It was a codified way to interact with magic safely. Constraining the consequences and guaranteeing the results, it revolutionized magic.

"So why does nobody know about it now?" Ester asked.

The red woman fell silent. Then she explained that there were forces out there whose attention came to those who used magic. Forces which ensured that magic always remained a secret. Powers beyond human. That was all she would say about it. For the next year, Ester and Erich learned. They studied human law by day and the Hidden Law by night. Ester seemed driven by something, and they started drifting away from Erich. He didn't understand what was going on, and the two moved from helping each other to trying to outdo each other. Eventually the day of their graduation came. That fateful day.

Ester and Erich got their law degrees. Erich's mother, father, and two sisters were there in the crowd, cheering him on. Ester's family was notably absent. He invited them to a celebratory dinner at his family's townhouse, along with the red woman (as a law mentor). They both agreed. Dinner was wonderful - Erich's dad had cooked a turkey, and his mom, first chair of the orchestra, entertained them with a violin solo. Then Ester stood up with a gleam in their eyes and excused themself. Stepping outside for some fresh air, they said. The moments afterward were seared into Erich's mind forever. He stepped outside for a cigarette. Bad habit. Bad habit that saved him. He heard Ester speak to something. A terrible voice that told them to fulfill the pact - erase the Red Sorcerer and her apprentice, help eradicate the Hidden Law, and ultimate power would be theirs. Erich stumbled, dropped his cigarette. Ester turned, a fire in their eyes. They spoke one word.

"Burn"

The house burst into flames. Erich ran inside, shouting for his family to get out of there, for his master to save herself. The smoke filled his lungs and clouded his eyes, and he coughed. The red woman stood above him. She said, "You are my student and you must live. Do not let my death haunt you. We will meet again." She threw her cloak over him and everything went black.

When Erich awoke, he was in the hospital. The doctors told him he was lucky the firefighters pulled him out before he got too hurt - he only had minor burns and some smoke inhalation. His family was not so lucky. Nobody seemed to know who his master was, nor where she went. Her body was not there. He asked to be discharged and rushed immediately to the secret apartment where his master had taken residence. He found the inside burned, scoured clean. Nothing left of her but the robe in his bag. He fell to his knees and clutched the cloth in his hands. Looking up with vision blurred from tears, he saw the faint edge of golden writing on a piece of the wall. He touched it and the robe reacted, tailoring itself to his height and frame, and the wood fell away to reveal a small cache of scrolls and magic equipment, along with a letter addressed to him. Erich read it, then again. His master knew about Ester's betrayal, but she could do nothing about it. It explained how to find other magic users trained in the Law, what to expect as the new Red Sorcerer, a little on the magic woven into the robe, and finally, a word of warning. The forces that seek to eradicate magic users are strong, and they have many eyes and ears over the world. But she believes they can be defeated.

Since then, Erich moved a bit, lying low. He inherited some money from his parents and they had a very generous life insurance. He finally settled down on the West Coast, in a middling-large city, and opened a small consulting business to give him some cover. Then he got to work. There's a lot to do.

Costume Description: Erich wears the Robes of the Red Sorcery, a magical artifact passed down from master to apprentice over the generations. It is a burgundy colored robe and cloak, with its hood and sleeves ringed in gold thread tracing complex magical sigils. The robes come with red leather gloves and snakeskin shoes with pointy tips. When Erich wears the hood, his face is magically obscured. The cloak is enchanted to resist heat, cold, and water, and is hard to pierce or cut by mundane means. When damaged, it will slowly repair itself over the course of several days, and it can regenerate over months from a small scrap of cloth.

Character Abilities: Erich is fairly proficient in the Hidden Law, a formalized school of magic which allows for predictable, repeatable effects. His schooling was not very complete when his master disappeared, so he doesn't know many spells and it takes a lot of research and study to properly write new ones. Currently, his abilities are limited to:

-Warding: A set of simple warning and protection spells
-Healing: Being able to fix light injury, such as bruises and shallow cuts
-Physical Enhancement: Minor boosts to strength and speed, though that doesn't come with the training to use those effectively.
-Telekinesis: Moving small objects around at a limited distance
-Fire: A specialty of his master, Erich can light flammable objects (such as wood, paper, and candles) at a distance and also throw small balls of flame (marble-sized).

Home City: Bayharbor, also known as Tulip City for its famous tulip garden

City description: A West Coast city which is somewhat a cross between San Francisco and Portland. It has hills overlooking a bay that's a natural deep harbor, making it a perfect city for commerce. There are redwood and pine trees on the city's outskirts, while the main downtown is built on infill land reclaimed from the sea.

Friends, family and associates:

Alive:
Sarah Friedman: An aunt of Erich's, he doesn't really know much about her. She lives in New York with her girlfriend.
Michael Helms: A cousin who lives in Seattle. Fisherman. May have a wife and baby??

Deceased:
Maria & Paul Helms: Mother and father. Burned to death.
Henrietta & Julia Helms: Sisters. Burned to death.
August & Nadia Helms, Nicholas & Rita Friedman: Grandparents. Died of age-related illness.
Horace Helms: Uncle, died on a crab boat.

Disappeared:
The Red Sorceress: Erich's master.

Ester Finch: Former lover, now rival. Traitor. Whereabouts unknown.

Secret Identity: Sophia Stark

Alias: Nothing yet, just Sophia Stark.

Description: Sophia stands at 6'2", with a strong, sturdy build from a childhood of rough, rigorous farming in Nebraska. She has long cornsilk hair (typically tied back), a tanned skintone (from working in the sun), and looks to be in her mid to late twenties. She typically wears flannel or plaid shirts and jeans, with functional work boots. In winter, she utilizes a nice old brown leather jacket. When manning her food truck, she usually wears an apron.

In terms of personality, she's usually pretty friendly and chipper. She has a strong sense of morality, enjoys cooking, and has a great love of comic books (from IDENTIFYING HEAVILY WITH THEM), superhero movies (FOR THE SAME REASON), comedy movies, and funny videos on the internet.

Biography: Sophia was born in parts unknown somewhere around 27 years ago. When her adoptive parents found her, she was just a baby, having crash-landed in somekind of futuristic escape pod in their cornfield. You see, Henry and Abigail Stark were farmers. Henry's father had been a farmer, and his father a farmer, all the way back to the 1890s. They'd never had a child of their own, as a childhood accident involving a microwave had left Henry infertile. So when they found a strange human-looking baby in those fields? They adopted her, and hid the strange pod in a hole beneath their barn. It was a damn good thing NORAD hadn't picked that up. Abigail's brother had some connections in local government, so they managed to falsify a birth certificate for this baby, citing her name as Sophia Stark. Her false birthday was stated as June 19th, 1993.

Sophia had a relatively normal childhood! She helped out on the farm, went to school, loved her parents. Things seemed pretty normal. Then one day, when struggling to open the frozen door of her father's truck, she tore the door right off and fell flat on her back. Her parents explained how they'd found her, showing her the completely busted and non-functional pod under the barn. She reacted with a level of existential dread unfamiliar to her young mind, but she recovered. It didn't matter where she came from! She loved her parents, and that's all that mattered.

In school she hid her strength and never tried out for sports, instead diligently studying the culinary arts. She became an excellent cook, renowned by her family for her prowess. When she graduated high school, she moved away from Nebraska (wanting to live in the big city), and ended up saving up money working in a restaurant (Ol' Jack's Best BBQ). Eventually, she bought a food truck, and managed to make a pretty successful business out of it. She got a decent apartment, makes excellent money, and is doing what she loves.

But something inside her does bother her. With all these abilities, couldn't she be helping people? Couldn't she be doing more than just serving EXCELLENT ribs, wings, and BBQ sandwiches? Perhaps so...

Costume Description: Nothing yet! She's yet to fight anything in life, other than tough kitchen stains and occasional irate customers.

Character Abilities: Well, Sophia is an excellent cook, placing great emphasis on her BBQ cooking! She makes INCREDIBLE ribs, BBQ sandwiches, hamburgers, wings, really anything conventionally sold at a BBQ restaurant. She's also well-versed in farm chores such as cleaning stables and barns, bringing hay to the livestock, driving tractors, riding horses, and planting seeds. She has no college education, though she received excellent grades in high school. On top of that, she can lift up to forty tons, survive getting blindsided by a freight train, run at up to 60 miles per hour, and can leap ten stories in a single bound. But who cares about that stuff?

Home City: New York City! Her apartment is in Brooklyn, which is where she usually mans her food truck.

City description: You don't need a description of New York City. Well, if you do, it's built at the mouth of the Hudson River. The dominant cultural and financial center is Manhattan, with the other boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island) each also housing an ungodly number of people.

Friends, family and associates:

(not getting TOO into detail on personalities to give Gallo a chance to develop them)

Family

Thaddeus "Teddy" Stark - Adoptive paternal grandfather, Henry's father. June 19th, 1924 - February 24th, 1988. Died of Cancer. He was a humorous and good-natured man. Liked smoking a pipe, and well-known for his strength and size. Fought in the US Army in World War II, fighting first in Africa then in France. Never talked about his war years, though old war friends often called him the Bear of Beauvoir.
Margaret Stark - Adoptive paternal grandmother, Henry's mother. April 4th, 1925 - December 31st, 2005. Died of a heart attack. She was a fun, wild, daredevil of a woman who loved taking risks. Was also a mean cook, and gave Sophia her love of culinary adventure.

Henry Stark - Adoptive father, farmer, born January 20th, 1970. A kind, generous, compassionate, and surprisingly progressive man who operates his farm in Cornshrine, Nebraska. He is a fan of baseball, though he hates football. Too pointlessly violent. He gives his farm hands fair wages, and practices safe, sustainable agriculture.
Abigail Stark - Adoptive mother, farmer, born July 7th, 1971. A good-natured, charitable, and similarly progressive woman who helps her husband operate his farm. She enjoys building models and painting in her spare time.

Edward Stark - Adoptive uncle, brother of Henry Stark, born March 2nd, 1971. He's a naval engineer living in Norfolk, Virginia. He and his brother are on good terms, and Edward is quite thankful that Henry took over the family farm. He is a calm, quiet, and professional man. Loves sea life.
Martina Stark - Adoptive aunt, wife of Edward, born May 14th, 1973. Owns a successful bar near the water. A charismatic and peppy woman.
Dr. William Stark - Adoptive cousin, son of Edward and Martina, born August 22nd, 1993. A rising star in the scientific field, William currently works at Livingstone Labs in Newark. Sophia and him are friends, and she visits him often. He's a driven and passionate individual, though not without a comedic side, and often fills his work with jokes and puns when he can get away with it.
Thaddeus "Ted" Stark - Adoptive cousin, son of Edward and Martina, born November 29th, 1995. The free-spirited member of Edward's household, Thaddeus is in a mildly successful traveling band, and enjoys drinking, partying, and generally living one hell of a crazy lifestyle.
Anna Stark - Adoptive cousin, daughter of Edward and Martina, born June 7th, 1997. The quiet, calm, composed child, she is currently going to college in DC. She intends to become a veterinarian.

Billy Lee - Adoptive maternal grandfather, Abigail's father, born January 21st, 1950. Fought in Vietnam, former amateur boxer who once got his ass annihilated by Mohammad Ali, professional poker player, hardworking handyman, and now bestselling author of children's books. Billy Lee is a constantly-grinning joker of a man who has lived one hell of a crazy life. Settled in Cornshrine in 1978, born in Detroit, Michigan.
Joanne Lee - Adoptive maternal grandmother, Abigail's mother, born March 1st, 1952. Expert seamstress and designer. Does a lot of freelance work to help with the household finances. A courteous, polite, and proper old woman.

Arnold Lee - Adoptive uncle, Abigail's brother, born February 2nd, 1968. The Mayor of Cornshrine, former lawyer. He's a good, upstanding man. Likes golf, hiking, and has a strong admiration of Chinese culture and history. It's what his degree was in before going to law school.
Emily Lee - Adoptive aunt, Abigail's sister-in-law, born December 16th, 1970. A nurse at the small Cornshrine hospital. She's a sarcastic, witty woman with a love of knitting and Dota 2. She is really into Dota 2.
John Lee - Adoptive cousin, child of Arnold and Emily, born April 2nd, 1995. Goes to college in Boston. Enjoys video games, swimming, and running. Is on the university track team. Studying to be an IT specialist.
Emma Lee - Adoptive cousin, child of Arnold and Emily, born January 20th, 1997. Goes to college in Chicago. Is a poet, a writer, and an artist. Is studying English and wants to become a professor.

Friends

Brianna North - Best friend from high school. Born May 9th, 1993. Bright, kind, and driven woman currently attending medical school down in Maryland. They keep in touch via Discord and phone calls! Likes playing the Sims and other sim games.
Anton Uralov - Good friend that Sophia met while working at Ol' Jacks. Roughly 29. Immigrated from Ukraine. He still works at Ol' Jacks. She talks with him from time to time.

Besides that, she doesn't have very many real friends. There's a number of regular customers she talks to, and she made some more distant work friends at her old job. She also had MORE friends in high school.

She's just not in touch with them at the moment!

Employees - Sophia pays all her employees a solid, fair, livable wage. Because it's New York City and life is financial hell.

Madison Keller - Employee. Born October 9th, 1997. She mans the cash register while Sophia usually does the cooking. She is taking university classes online with intent to become a high school teacher. Likes dogs, art, and is pretty reliable overall.
Miguel Rodriguez Garcia - Employee. Born June 2nd, 1994. He's worked with Sophia since she started the food truck, and is versatile in that he can both man the cash register AND cook. His parents come from Puerto Rico, though Miguel was born in New York City. He likes going to concerts and playing video games.

Secret Identity: Lord Wazrak Cloudbreaker

Alias: He has not chosen a name to go by among the humans. They might deign to call him shorty, or some such.

Description: At 4'4, Wazrak is (he insists) average height. He has a black beard, which he wears in a single thick braid, contained by the jewelled ruby-inset silver clasp forged by his grandfather. Aside from his facial hair, his head is clean shaven. He has a ruddy complexion and a large nose. His stature is almost as wide as it is tall, and he is clearly bulky and muscled, if a little overweight in the gut. All in all, he looks like a dwarf walked straight out of a fantasy story.

Biography: Dwarves had always been a secretive and isolationist folk, and even before the clans of Anvilhorn emigrated from their home in the Scottish Highlands to the great peaks of the Rockies in the late 1700s to found a new hold and seek new riches, they maintained deliberate detachment from the affairs of men. When Wazrak was but a beardling a hundred years ago, his home, Anvilhorn Hold, sealed its entrances to resist a siege of magical night creatures. Even after the enemy moved on, the dwarves never reopened the main gates, and kept guarded the narrow and winding side-stairs. Aside from a few rangers needed to maintain a watch on the above-world and keep humans from approaching, the dwarven folk of Anvilhorn lived and delved beneath their mountain, forsaking surface and sun in exchange for safety and riches.

So they remained, hidden from the world, an isolated and self-sufficient dwarven society where Wazrak grew up. Isolated in their own world, the dwarves learned little of humanity and its crude machinations, focusing on maintaining their own superior craftsmanship and wide selection of drinks brewed from everything that grew in the river-caverns beneath the main hold. They mined gold and iron, forging dwarven steel tools and glittering jewellery beyond the craftsmanship of any human hand, accumulating great wealth to satiate their own avarice and industriousness. Wazrak was the son of a clan-head, his father Murrak, but that did not mean he did not craft or mine. He forged his own jewels, and even his own two-handed war pick - a long-handled steel weapon with a pick on one side of the head and a hammer-face on the other, beautifully engraved with gilded runes and studded with jasper and agate. Wazrak was expected to one day replace his father as clan-head, and learned how to arbitrate greivances and maintain the honour of the clan in the drinking halls. Sometimes. Other times, he skipped lessons on duty and custom to return to the forge, to carousing in the drinking halls, or to delve into the deep caverns with the monster hunters who kept the forgotten things from the darkness beneath the world from invading their mining pits and shafts. With war pick in hand and protected by steel plate, he learned to fight, and enjoyed it too.

Wazrak also studied, though not intensively. His curiosities were many - new forging techniques, manuals of battle, and even compiled lore and reports from the rangers as to the human civilization flourishing out in the sunlight. Wazrak found the idea of humans interesting - they had built strange and impressive machines, even with their crude and slipshod workmanship. His status granted Wazrak access to the deep library, which contained human books, and he learned enough of the English language to read them. And so his curiosity grew.

One day, drinking with some of his closest friends, Wazrak entered a contest to see who could best hold their liquor. The strongest ales and mushroom spirits were brought out, and Wazrak refused to back down, drinking against some of the toughest rangers and monster hunters of the fortress as his friends cheered him on. Possessed of some great need to prove himself, Wazrak drank more than he ever had before, drinking well past the point where even his durable dwarven constitution would have previously given up and fallen unconscious. He remembers climbing atop the table and making a charismatic speech, though he doesn't remember the words. He remembers leading his friends back to his clan-hall and then up to the throne room of the King of Anvilhorn. He remembers wearing his ancestors' ancient runic plate, and raising the Greataxe of Thorgak the First Cloudbreaker, and... well, at that point, it all gets too hazy to recall.

And then Wazrak woke up with the worst hangover he'd ever known, in the baking heat, with a blue sky above him, alone in a metal box full of trash, in the shadow of a great black glass pyramid. His war pick was close to hand, and he still wore his ancestors' armour, but his friends - and the legendary Greataxe of his progenitor - were nowhere to be seen. Little does he know, he swore an oath to the king that got him and six of his friends sent out into the surface world until he fulfils it. Now if only he could find out what that oath was, and how to get home...

Costume Description: Wazrak wears elaborate runic plate armour forged from polished steel, passed down and improved from ancestor to ancestor. It is etched with visible power runes and decorations, particularly on the torso, wrists and boots. He wears a dark blue cloak with his clan rune, a stylized lightning bolt splitting a diamond shape in half. Beneath his plate and mail he wears blue clothes of cave silk, and on the fingers of his gauntlet are set numerous jewelled gold rings (which are actually removable parts of the gauntlet and dont really fit on bare fingers). The helmet has gilded inset decorations and has eye-pieces and a noseguard, leaving his beard exposed, but dwarven beards are tougher than mere human hair and are also protected by the helmet's runes.

Character Abilities: Wazrak has inherent abilities, trained abilities and the benefits granted by his armour.
Dwarven Constitution: Wazrak is a dwarf; he is very strong, exceptionally tough and difficult to keep down, resistant to environmental effects, and very hard to incapacitate with alcohol - even when drunk (which takes a lot more than it takes to get a human drunk), he fights and functions just as well if not better compared to when he is sober, up until the point he gets so drunk he starts falling over. On the downside, he is not particularly agile, though it is very hard to exhaust him. He is also naturally resistant, though not immune, to magic.
Monster Hunter: Wazrak trained with the monster hunters of his hold, and fought monsters for fun, since dwarven steel plate made it a much less life-threatening experience than it otherwise would have been. He is a very skilled combatant, capable of moving in armour and striking fast and hard with devestating greatweapons. This experience has further toughened him up and improved his natural strength and endurance.
Craftsdwarfship: Wazrak chose to learn metalworking over the other traditional professions of mining, stoneworking or brewing. He is a skilled craftsdwarf, capable of making and repairing tools, weapons, armour and jewellery, given sufficiently high-quality tools and materials to work with and enough time to do the job right. He even knows how to imbue a few basic magical runes to enhance equipment, but he is no master runesmith.
Ancestral Armour of the Cloudbreaker Clan: This runic armour, passed down and improved from generation to generation, imbues the wearer with supernatural strength and resilience. Capable of crashing through walls at a full run, cutting through solid steel and shrugging off blows from powerful monsters and high-caliber bullets, this armour's wearer becomes a juggernaut of combat. It also extends protections to the wearer's weapons so the wear and tear doesn't destroy them and - most importantly - also protects the wearer's exposed beard from being damaged in combat. Finally, the armour has a number of comfort effects that make it wearable in extreme heat and cold, and additionally provide a gentle mending effect to repair itself and heal the wearer's wounds very slowly over time.

Home City: Anvilhorn Hold is a dwarf hold in the Rocky Mountains. The dwarves call the mountain it resides under Anvilhorn Peak, named after the king's clan. Wazrak doesn't know what the human name of the place would be, as he doesn't even know his way home.

City description: The dwarves of Anvilhorn are secretive and isolationist, having closed off their hold to outsiders long ago, and the humans have been kept from learning about their presence by the tireless work of the rangers. Within its subterranean halls, the city toils and thrives, doing traditional dwarfy things like mining, smelting, building, crafting, brewing, hoarding and feasting. Obviously, they have the full range of professions required to support their society, too, but most dwarves take up a traditional profession as a hobby in addition to one they need to support their clans and the hold as a whole. They built the hold on top of a gold mine, ensuring the humans never found it, and are such their vaults are full of unfathomable wealth. Of course, Wazrak has no way back there right now.

Friends, family and associates:
Murrak Cloudbreaker - Father, head of the Cloudbreaker clan, rightful owner of the two artifacts Wazrak ran off with, back at the hold.
Thorzid Steelwash - Other father (the dwarves don't really go for gender identity or sexual dimorphism), back at the hold.
Ezzok Cloudbreaker - Brother, back at the hold.
Madrak Hammerhelms - Drinking buddy, one of his six companions, location unknown. A ranger by trade, he probably knows the way back to Anvilhorn. A typical stoic armed with a dwarven blunderbuss.
Uksel Stonehefter - Drinking buddy, one of his six companions, location unknown. Young monster hunter who was very proud of the one time he killed a cave troll (with help). Easily excitable.
Thasrak Oathbarleys - Drinking buddy, one of his six companions, location unknown. He was a cook by trade, was prone to bouts of anger and surprisingly skilled with an axe.
Morgat Stormaxes - Drinking buddy, one of his six companions, location unknown. One of his father's sworn shields. Extremely friendly and gregarious, and a good friend in a fight.
Olgric Greenshield - Drinking buddy, one of his six companions, location unknown. Greenshield was that one guy who was always there joining the party but nobody really knew what he did for a day job.
Gendrak Cavereaches - Drinking buddy, one of his six companions, location unknown. Fellow lord of the Cavereaches clan, Gendrak wasn't set to inherit anything. Something of a glory hunter who always wanted to go out and prove he was capable of both leading and helping people.

Secret Identity: Sirventes Planh

Alias: DRAKON

Description: Six-foot-tall, red haired, golden eyes he claims are hazel. Slight pointy fangs, canines, and nails – almost unnoticeable unless you are a monster hunter who knows their chops. Technically middle-aged but looks a bit younger than you expect. Doesn’t really do beards since he finds them real annoying – the most he’ll begrudge is a five-o’-clock shadow. He has some chest hair, which you can tell because he likes to leave his shirt partially unbutton all the time. He is too poor in modern cash and time for cologne but he likes to wear a few pieces of jewelry from his hoard.

He is also a dragon. His true form is that of a large, red serpent with bat wings and small skink-like limbs.

Sirventes is charming and friendly, but can be vain, lazy, and avaricious. Despite his dragon-y tendencies, he likes to interact with humans more than with dragons and he is considered some sort of a disappointment by the latter. The preference for human interaction is because he thinks human leavings are interesting. Dragons do not leave much behind besides their hoards. They do not write poetry. They do not draw in the margins.

Biography:

Sirventes of the Planh Clan has a largely uninteresting history. He was born somewhere in rural France, the seventh spawn of the seventh spawn, during what we consider the Middle Ages. He did not stand out much among his draconic peers because he was a Giant Fucking Nerd. He eked through existence by cowing and bullying the locales – mostly peasants, but occasionally the clergy, merchants, and nobility foolish enough to settle in the countryside. He had a good run but eventually stopped by a group led by a wizard. He was pretty sure it was a wizard because the person placed him into a stasis that reeks of magic.

Fuckin’ wizards.

He would black out forever if it were not for the fact a certain “Chad Snidely” purchased and messed around with his frozen remains. Long story short, Chad resurrected him by sheer accident and Sirventes flew off to a scary but exciting new world. It has been a couple of years and Sirventes has naturalized to the modern times – learned English, got a job, and even recovered a modest portion of his hoard. Things have been quiet but Sirventes knows it would not stay quiet for long. He is a dragon and dragons always attract trouble.

Costume Description: His dragon form is good enough? A costume (or change of costumes) would be probably a good idea in the future since going around as dragon is not only obnoxious but great at attracting enemies, for which he has many. Also, Sirventes is vain and loves to play dress up.

Character Abilities:

Dragon constitution. Sirventes draws the majority of his power from his True Form, that of an enormous red serpent. He is moderately strong and can fly but relies much of his formidability on his inhuman constitution. He can take horrific blows, he can shrug off poison and toxins. He will die from the lack of oxygen before he dies of radiation and extreme temperatures. He is not immortal but age will not kill him.

Poison breath and fangs. The poison can affect magical creatures in additional to normal human beings but needs contact to flesh. The poison is extremely painful to the point it can paralyze and blind unfortunates but it is temporary. It does not leave you dead – it just makes you wish you were dead.

Limited shapeshifting. Sirventes can only turn into a dragon and to a humanoid. He cannot do degrees of shapeshifting (so he cannot be a man-dragon or a dragon with creepy human hands), nor can he turn into animals or plants or fire. However, he can customize his humanoid appearance to various ages, genders, or builds but it is very obvious it is Him. Especially with those golden eyes.

Mutagenic, addictive blood. This is more an inconvenience but the blood of Sirventes is basically a magic superdrug that give people and animals a random combination of draconic mutations (various superhuman attributes, armored scales, elemental breath, wings, et cetera) if ingested. The more blood you drink, the more mutations you get. The mutations are temporary and long-term consumption would quickly kill you. This has not stopped people because people are stupid, power is heady, and the blood is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE.

Sirventes is well-versed in history and artifacts in western medieval Europe. The knowledge is mainly used to keep his job as an associate professor at Avalon University. He is expected to teach and do research by his superiors. He is obliged to – a career as a professor is a good cover for a dragon and magical research (free, because he is staff) is a good resource to have on hand.

Sirventes lives in a sewer system with his hoard, his laptop, and spotty wi-fi. His hoard mainly consists of what he considers valuable – which mainly consists of old-ass gold, gift cards (both expired and not), and particularly fancy lawn ornaments. The total value in modern times is 20k but Sirventes has no idea how to transaction that into useful cash and absolutely refuses to. A dragon would sooner give their life than their hoard and Sirventes is no different.

Home City: Saint Avalon. Usually shorten to Avalon, even in formal conversations.

City description: East coast near Boston (in both distance and culture) that is a hotbed for magical activity. Has been described as “Magic New York” by detractors, which is insulting but arguably true. Avalon has a little bit of everything you can find in a densely populated city. While an interesting and exciting place, outsiders mainly come to Avalon because either they are magical creatures, they want to go to Avalon University, or both.

Avalon Unicorns is the name of their local soccer team. They suck.

Friends, family and associates:

He probably has family? Dragons (at least the particular western category which Sirventes belongs to) tend to keep to themselves in their enormous hoards on even enormous territories. Dragons do not usually tolerate each other. Dragons do not send each other cards on holidays. Dragons are assholes.

Avalon University or Avalon U for short. It is a public research university famous for its academic strength, academic integrity, and its tendency to accumulate supernatural nonsense like how washing machines accumulates lint. The majority of teaching staff seem to be magical beings, or at least normal human beings entrenched up to the neck with magical bullshit. Avalon University is ridiculously huge and Sirventes is only really familiar with the staff from Department of Archaeology/Anthropology.

Dana Blanche is Sirventes’s TA. Sirventes has many teaching assistants but Dana is the only one who knows he is a dragon. There is little known about her. She loves archaeology and history and she comes from an affluent family which have association with the Fae. Considering she deflects every question about the Fair Folk or her family Sirventes could think up, it is safe to say the associations are at least Bad News.

That Shitty Wizard That Keeps Trying To Steal My Blood. Some insufferable hipster with horn-rimmed glasses who released Sirventes. He keeps on trying to stealing the blood of Sirventes to limited success. Sirventes knows little about other than the fact his name is Chad Snidely and he runs a technology corporation. That probably explains why he has the time and means to harangue an academic and his teaching assistant from time to time.

It is very obvious that Chad has aspirations to master the arcane arts but he is not very good at it. Sirventes is reluctant to kill him. Not out of any higher moral reason – the dragon wants to kill him – but corpses draw unwanted attention and the absence of Chad would be noticed. After all, he owns a corporation. Sirventes knows he has to find some way to deal with Chad. Chad is very good at escaping and very good at learning from his mistakes.

Knights of the Round Table. A fellowship of monster hunters dedicated to keeping the world of the magic and mundane safe. They are called Knights of the Round Table because they not only have a supernatural or divine association with the Knights of the Round Table from the actual shit-you-not King Arthur mythology (although what sort of association – if they are descendants, reincarnations, lent power by Actual Knights, et cetera – remains uncertain) and but they also hold their meetings in Round Table Pizza.

While their meeting place could be a better choice, they are dangerous and dangerously savvy for a motley crew of twenty-somethings. They have an arsenal of magical weapons and magical potential at their disposal but their most powerful ability is how they manage to clean after themselves, leaving no trace of supernatural behind their steps.

Dragon Cult. A cult of those who pursue power through blood. Their membership seems to be consist of insecure nerds, so-called “scalies” from the “furry subculture,” and individuals who are both.

They unsurprisingly practice blood magic, in which they can consume magical blood and gain limited abilities from said consumption. They can consume any sort of magical blood but they have an extremely special fondness for Dragon Blood due to its notable potency and other reasons said under “Character Abilities.” The cult has large numbers but are too unsubtle and disorganized to be considered a serious threat. Until now.

Dragon Cult Leader. A vampire woman who killed the last Dragon Cult Leader and took over the Dragon Cult. She seems very intent not only stealing all the blood of Sirventes, but also his organs, his flesh, his bones, and also (horrified gasp) his hoard. This is honestly very concerning because vampires are very powerful creatures in their own right and Sirventes does not even know her name.