New Salem Character #15: Edward Bear

Edward Bear (Edward Bear)

Pyramid Tier: 3    Experience level: 6

Affect/Gimmick: Winne the Pooh. He's a huge fellow, well known for favoring a red vest over his honey-colored shirt and pants. He favors a slow and deliberate way of speaking, and affects a breathy curious voice, all to hide that he is indeed a bear of very big brain.  

Gang?: Yes, the Hundred Acres. These are all members of the staff of the Gentleman's Club "Sanders" - Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Owl, Piglet, and Eeyore - and Edward has outfitted each of them with appropriate 'body power device' gear. They are kind of an expy Ani-Men. 

Status: He is a powerful member of the Syndicate, overseeing Aces O'rEights and, skipping around her, the Enormity, and running protection across both east and west Covenant. Pretty much every sleazy place in Covenant gives him money, and the non-sleazy places pay him to keep things that way. 

Powers: 2

1. Size Change - Larger: Permanently changed, x1.25 height (and movement and ranges), x1.9 weight. He stands at 7 feet tall and is proportioned as if he were a broadly built 5'7" person. That means he's freaking huge, just inside the range of human. 
2. Regeneration: heals per HOUR vs all damage except Acid/Chemical. That he just heals normally, but will heal completely. This also gives him Heightened Strength C and Heightened Endurance C, both +4
3. Heightened Intelligence A: +16. If he spends one action studying someone he can tailor his approach, using his Intelligence rather than Charisma for reaction modifiers. 

Weight: 430      Basic Hits: 9    Agi Mod: -1

S: 16        E: 16        HP: 50

A: 14        I: 31         Pow:  77         

C: 13                        Move: 58"

Accuracy: +1 or trained to +3 with random brawling weapons

Damage Mod: +4

Reactions Mod: +1 or +6

Carrying Cap: 1225    HTH: 1d10

Inventions: All of the furniture in Sanders has been constructed to weigh inside his ability to lift and move it around, so all of it can be brawling weapons of +3 to hit, +1d10 damage (961-1920 lbs.). Every one of the 100 Acres is armed with Invention level gear: Kanga and Roo both have Jumping Boots (+30" jumping, can kick for +2 to hit, +1d6 damage +1d4 velocity); Owl has a Glider Cape (fly at 44" speed) and Vision Enhancing Goggles (double detects); Eeyore has a Snub Nose Sleep Gas Gun (4 charge, 3" range Paralysis Ray attack, saves to wake up on 1d20); Rabbit has gloves with retractable Nasty Little Claws (+1 to hit, +1d4 damage, ignores Structural Rating of SR 3 [Hardwood] or less, allows tunneling at 10"); Piglet has the Surprisingly strong exoskeleton (quadruple carrying capacity to 1000 lbs., 1d10 HTH) 

Background/Origin: Edward Bear became obsessed with Winnie the Pooh at an early age. Small in childhood, his parents hired an endocrinologist to inject him with experimental growth hormone. That might explain his size, and perhaps his healing factor, but no one is quite sure. 

Bear was heir to a considerable fortune and attended all the best schools for his technological and sociological brilliance. When his family lost money in a stock con, Bear turned to the Syndicate as an inventor to ameliorate the losses. Over the years he forged a position for himself, then identified who had conned his family: Johnny Charming (one of the four Stagedoor Johnnies along with Johnny Dastardly). Johnny Charming hasn't been seen in some time. He's not likely to show up again. Maybe he retired. 

Edward then arranged control of his father's old club, Sanders, that during his youth had been a couple blocks on the safe side of Covenant Park. These days, it's a block over the line. And Edward, in control of all protection rackets in Covenant, takes money from everyone west to make sure their property values stay up, and everyone east to stay in business at all. Edward is a keen student of human behavior - he keeps journals on it - and will engage in some level of tasteful depravity himself. He's also not above using Sanders and it's Playboy-bunny-esque staff skimpily dressed as sexy animals to run <ahem> honey-pot schemes on the rich and powerful for blackmail material. 

Finally Bear - as a semi-respectable member an older family - has just enough status to show up at Calamity  or Deadwood and not be questioned; this is good because he's Aces boss in the Syndicate. On order to keep her as clean as possible, he also oversees the Enormity directly. He has regular contact with the Talon to keep tabs on Coyote and how Coyote interacts with the Enormity. (Coyote does not know Bear is watching him).