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Saturday, January 20, 2024

New Salem Character #20: Doctor Black, the Ghoul

Doctor Black/The Ghoul (Randall Black)

Pyramid Tier: 5    Experience level: 11

Affect/Gimmick: Victorian era doctor/vivisectionist/resurrectionist. Heavy leather best, sometimes with apron, black leather doctor's bag, top hat when feeling jaunty. He's got a janky, almost movie monster way of moving where he's suddenly RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.

Gang?: Yes, the walking dead. See below, but assume these are masses of animal/attack at level 4 opponents.  

Status: He is known face to face to the Tier 4 triumvirate and Tier 3 heads, but no deeper than that. Everyone, and I mean even the Talon, are deeply disturbed and scared by this guy, but they follow what orders come from him, usually just commanding support to deal with a problem.

Powers: 4

  1. Psionics - Madman's Mind: Like a movie monster he's vey hard to put down, and he always comes at problems from insane angles. +10 to Endurance and Intelligence, and any saves against those characteristics are made one level easier (d% becomes, d% vs. characteristic*3, for example). 
  2. Heightened Agility A +10 Bonus, can throw scalpels and other similar unbalanced shar items to A" range.
  3. Heightened Defense: -4 to be hit from all attacks when conscious and mobile.
  4. Absorption - Devices: Dr. Black's peculiar genius makes him an expert at deciphering and integrating super-hero level technology... once he's stripped it off your corpse. These devices becomes permanent adds to his power set. 
    1. Non Corporality Device: hand-held vibrational crystal, 4 hours of use, taken from the original Cat Who Walks Through Walls
    2. Flame Powers Device: type A, 25" range, 18 charges, 1d12 damage, 1 action to use as defense, a pistol taken from Firebug. 
    3. Flight Device: 220 MPH, 14 hours of use, Flat rocket pack under his Victorian leather long coat, this makes an awful racket. Taken from Captain Skye.
    4. Invisibility Device: 6 hours of use. the Victorian leather long coat. Taken from Johnny Springheel (one of the late Stagedoor Johnnies) 
    5. Heightened Strength Device: tablets give 2 hours of super strength - add 30 bonus power and movement, 90 bonus HP, and increase carry capacity to 7000 lbs. (2d8). Taken from TikTok the Clock Master.
    6. Mutant Power Device - Necrotech: Apply to any fresh corpse to both embalm it and make it a controlled 'robot' with 1d10 basic HTH, 10 HP and 8 Agility. It can't roll with attacks. He can control up to twice his HP in necrotech zombies at one time, one action per round to command them, Control band is in his hat. Taken from the Vivisectionist. 
  5. Prejudice: Negative Reactions from EVERYONE! He's that damn creepy. 
Weight: 190      Basic Hits: 4    Agi Mod: +0
S: 13        E: 24        HP: 54 (69)
A: 26        I: 24         Pow:  87 (117)
C: 13                        Move: 59 (89)
Accuracy: +4
Damage Mod: +5
Reactions Mod: -1
Carrying Cap: 347 or 2000   HTH: 1d6 or 1d12
Inventions:  His impressively organizable doctor's bag contains his various devices organized in such a way to be immediately accessible (movement only to grab), his impossibly sharp monofilament scalpels are +2 to hit, +1d4 damage, and he, bit no one else, can throw them 26". 

Background/Origin: Randall Black was obsessed with Jack the Ripper from an early age, and also of the personality type prone to serial killing. After the third of his killings was, almost by accident, the semi retired super-hero Captain Skye. That's when Black hit on his real calling - killing device wielding supers and taking his powers for their own. This didn't stand in the way of medical school, of course. A man has to have an occupation. 

It takes a lot of time and patience to locate and kill super-tech wielders, but he is uniquely suited to the work. In time it brought him to the notice of Reverend Green, who was looking for a right hand man with a unique viewpoint and skill set. This turned out to be a match made in hell, and since then Doctor Black has been Reverend Green's private physician and scary-as-hell intermediary to keep the Syndicate heads in line when needed. 

2 comments:

  1. I think Statedoor is a typo for Stagedoor?

    It looks like you've worked the Stagedoor Johnnies' demise into the background of the syndicate, but I think so far I've only identiified two of them -- Edward's revenge and this.

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    1. Corrected the typo. And the third of the four Stagedoor Johnnies deaths was in the origin for "Magic" Eight Ball back on day two, Johnny Dastardly. I'm pretty sure I didn't have the idea of there being four of them nailed down at that point.

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