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Our first COTW this week is a super-heroine and
philosophical disciple of a controversial religious leader,
using her powers to fight crime and spread the Way...
The Acolyte; enlightened illusionist super-hero
(c) copyright 2001 S D Anderson
Total Points: 500 Points
Age early 20s; 5'3"; 110 pounds; a petite but athletic young
woman with a shaved head, pretty green eyes and an
attractive smile.
There is an illustration of her in costume here.
ST 10 [-] - thrust 1d-2, swing 1d
DX 15 [60] - basic speed 7, move 7, dodge 7
parry
(judo) 8
IQ 15 [60]
HT 13 [30]
WL 15 [-] - immune to fright checks
ADVANTAGES: Appearance (Attractive) [5]; Blessed
(Oneiromancy) [10]; Charisma +1 [5]; Damage
Resistance 20 [60]; Flight [40]; Healing
(Power 7) [21]; High Pain Threshold [10];
Stone Missile (Power 10/LC6; Advantageous Knockback Only,
+10%; Animated Illusions, +20%; Area Effect, +50%;
Controlled Knockback, +30%; Increased Knockback x2, +40%;
Instantaneous, +20%; Movable Illusions, +20%; Selective
Effect, +50%; Wall x2, +60%) [240]; Super-Flight x1
[20]; Unfazeable [15].
DISADVANTAGES: Code of Honour (Modern Chivalric)
[-10]; Fanaticism (Barnow's Philosophy)
[-15]; Honesty [-10]; Overconfidence
[-10]; Secret Identity [-10]; Sense of Duty
(The Unenlightened) [-10]; Truthfulness
[-5]; Vow (Always answer a plea for help)
[-15]; Weirdness Magnet [-15].
QUIRKS: Enjoys using her super-powers; Overly
self-controlled; Loves to listen to music; Shaves her head;
Meditates often. [-5]
SKILLS: Area Knowledge (Eugene, Oregon)-14 [.5];
Bard-15* [1]; Boating-12 [.5]; Dancing-13
[.5]; Dreaming-5** [0]; Driving/TL7
(Automobile)-10# [0]; Enthrallment (Persuade)-14
[1]; Enthrallment (Sway Emotions)-14 [1];
Illusion Art-13 [1]; Jeweler/TL7-12 [.5];
Judo-12 [.5]; Law-12 [.5]; Leadership-14*
[.5]; Literature-12 [.5]; Meditation-12
[1]; Merchant-14 [1]; Occultism-14
[1]; Performance-13*** [0]; Philosophy
(Barnowism)-14 [2]; Savoir-Faire-14 [1];
Singing-12 [.5]; Skating-12 [.5]; Speed
Reading-13 [.5]; Swimming-11# [0];
Teaching-15 [2]; Theology (Human Potential
Movement)-14 [2].
*includes +1 from Charisma
**default from IQ
***default from Bard
#default from DX
LANGUAGES: English (native)-15 [0]; French-13
[.5].
PSI SKILLS: Healing-12 [1].
SUPER SKILLS: Stone Missile-15 [8].
EQUIPMENT
The Acolyte wears a costume: a dark blue body-suit adorned
with her insignia on the chest, a golden belt and golden
bracers at the wrists, with thigh-high fuchsia boots and a
hooded cloak of the same colour. The cloak usually hides her
face in shadow; even if it is removed, however, the
Acolyte's features are concealed behind a silk mask worn
over the top half of her face. Her insignia is an image of a
golden pyramid reaching up to a celestial city. The costume
is made from light-weight materials, weighs no more than
normal clothes, and offers no protection from injury. The
Acolyte carries no other equipment.
BIOGRAPHY
Marta Erinsen was born in 1979 in Oregon, where her parents
- an eccentric pair, leftovers from the social revolutions
of the late 1960s - were zealous students of all things
occult. They went out of their way to meet people who
supposedly knew arcane secrets, and invested considerable
time and money in their pursuits... In this way they
broadened their philosophical horizons - and also got taken
in more than a few scams and frauds as well. Young Marta
grew up in this environment, and was raised to believe in
what many people would label the "lunatic fringe"; she
lapped it up obediently, and it was the only way she ever
knew.
By the time Marta was a little girl, her parents had become
devoted followers of a spiritual teacher named Rosemary
Barnow, who preached that humans were separated from the
Divine by perceptions corrupted by pain, anguish and grief.
Through meditation and expressions of creativity, one could
learn to see past these barriers, to True Matter. Barnow
applied no formal name to her movement, as she and her
followers eschewed the very concept of churches and temples;
they considered themselves a community, but one without
enforced conventions. The Erinsens soon became converts,
contemplated on the contents of Barnow's books, and Marta
was taught the foundations of the philosophy as soon as she
could talk. In 1984, when Marta was in Kindergarten, her
parents took her on a pilgrimage to Barnow's retreat in
Colorado; the meeting made a profound impact on Marta.
Rosemary Barnow's movement suffered a traumatic upheaval
only two years later. In late 1985, Barnow had acquired the
ranch adjacent to her property, planning on using the new
property for her commercial concerns while turning her
original ranch into a spiritual retreat. The administration
of the new ranch was entrusted to Barnow's foreman Jim
Frankenberger, who began using an airstrip on the ranch to
run drugs. Laundering his profits through the ranch's
legitimate business concerns, Frankenberger's activities
eventually came to the attention of the authorities. In the
summer of 1986, the Barnow ranch was the target of a federal
raid, led by the DEA and FBI. It was a disaster from the
start, and escalated into a running gun-battle along four
and a half miles of country road, and the near total
destruction of the ranch house. Many of the ranch's
residents - including Rosemary Barnow herself - were killed
in the attack which was branded immediately by the media as
being excessive and irresponsible.
The controversy was heavy as soon as the smoke cleared. Some
claimed that Barnow knew of the drug smuggling, while others
maintained that Frankenberger was the mastermind. The
authorities were accused of misconduct, for attacking while
innocents like Barnow were present. The FBI countered with
assertions that the disaster was due to questionable
intelligence from local authorities and resistance from
Frankenberger's people. The dispute lingered for years,
becoming a blemish on the record of the Reagan
administration. Years later, a former DEA agent dying of
cancer made a much-publicised "death-bed confession",
claiming that the agent-in-charge at the Barnow disaster had
been Thomas M. Barker, a fundamentalist Christian who
allegedly executed the raid at a time that Barnow was known
to be inside, and that she had been the "real" target. While
Barnow's home burned, Barker supposedly said, "A suitable
end for that witch".
But despite the tragedy, Barnow's community of followers
survived. For Marta's mother, the death of Rosemary Barnow
and the controversy surrounding the affair proved beyond
doubt that she had been a genuine visionary, a woman truly
in touch with the Divine. And in the following years, when
several of her students developed super-powers, the movement
enjoyed even greater prosperity. Perhaps Barnow had been a
low-powered metahuman herself, with the power to trigger
latent powers in others. Maybe, as her disciples claimed,
she had been enlightened with a better understanding of the
mind, and her teachings guided some of her students into
developing abilities some people refer to as "super-human".
Whatever the explanation, Barnow's philosophies produced a
number of varied super-powered folks who - to some extent -
followed her teachings.
And although Marta had only been seven years old when Barnow
died, she grew up greatly influenced by the late teacher's
writings. She read all of Barnow's books thoroughly, and
received countless hours of instruction from her mother. She
was taught not only about the movement's search for
enlightenment, but about the raid, and the plot to discredit
and destroy Barnow's legacy. Marta was made well aware of
the fear of Barnow's teaching in many circles. By most of
her followers - Mrs. Erinsen included - Barnow's death was
seen as an assassination, perhaps by covert elements within
the Reagan government, perhaps by the religious right using
color of authority. The persecution extended to her
super-human followers as well, many of whom ran into trouble
with the authorities.
So when - in her adolescent years in the early-1990s - Marta
began to manifest her own abilities, she kept them secret
from everyone, even her own mother. Over the next few years,
Marta developed the power to summon what she called Pure
Matter into existence. She could shape it, make it move
around like solid illusions, even creating moving jets that
propel her through the air. She has learned to see Pure
Matter in the Aristotelian sense; it is the uncorrupted
material from which ideas and ideals are made, and which the
world merely (and imperfectly) copies.
It wasn't until Marta was in college, however, that the
years of study all came together. She adopted a costume, so
that she could fight injustice and both protect and educate
those who aren't "enlightened" - because they should have
the chance to see "the way" and because protecting people is
clearly a righteous and enlightened thing to do. She never
named herself, but as word spread, she picked up the name
"The Acolyte". She also suspects that she has picked up
unwanted attention as well. Many of the people she thinks
might be responsible for Barnow's death are now aware of who
she is, and they fear her. On one side, she faces crime and
injustice; on the other, conspiracy and intolerance.
ENCOUNTERED
Barnow's teachings were a mix of Theosophy, Santeria and
Jungian psychology, with touches of Aristotle and Cassaneda
thrown in. She preached that people were separated from God
by pain and anger, that the collective consensus of humanity
constructed from that anguish what she labeled a Movie
Projection Screen (MPS) onto which they projected what they
perceived as Reality. The Screen, however, actually blocks
their view of the celestial reality. Barnow believed
creativity is an expression of Divine Thought, and saw God
not so much in the Judeo-Christian mold but as loving
Thought/Energy. And Death was merely a transition, and those
able to see through the MPS could see and even contact the
dead. The MPS was corrupted matter. The soul cannot die and
knows this instinctively; it is confused because the MPS
keeps telling it otherwise. The soul neither dies nor ages,
but the image on the Screen does, thus reinforcing and
encouraging the cycle.
To Barnow, the biblical Patriarchal God is a part of the
MPS, the image of loving energy profaned by consensual
perception into a stern, unloving father-figure. Confusion
that such a force of love could be so unloving altered the
Consensus again and created the Corrupt God - a darker twin
of the Patriarchal God - whose darkness makes the Patriarch
look bright. Her analogy was sunspots in reverse; the actual
matter in a sunspot radiates light and heat. But in contrast
to the hotter solar matter around it, it appears dark.
Satan/Surtur/Shiva is so black an entity that the ember-red
burning charcoal of the Patriarchal God is seen as bright
light. In accordance with Barnow's teachings, Marta Erinsen
is able to reach past the MPS to the Celestial Reality
beyond it, and draws true spiritual substance from the other
side to sculpt into various, animated items (see THE
ACOLYTE'S POWERS, below).
Her mentor's death had a profound impact on Marta, and that
combined with the emergence of her super-human abilities
compelled her to bring enlightenment to the masses. She
feels as though she knows The Truth, and has an obligation
to bring it to the unenlightened. Mankind has fallen, and
the degenerate concepts that separate it from the Truth must
be smashed. Humanity must be given a chance to embrace the
loving Thought/Energy lest they die empty (or worse) - so
caught up in the MPS that when it's finally washed away,
they too will be lost. In her civilian identity, Marta works
as a telemarketer for a company called Health Food
Co-operative. She's rather good at convincing supermarkets
to by Co-op's produce and products, as she can be rather
persuasive. Even so, Marta is not particularly active in
promoting her beliefs as a civilian... Like many fanatics,
Marta is really a bit of a snob. And like many fanatics, she
really isn't a very nice person. If the topic arises, she'll
happily share her opinion, but has to curb her tendency to
preach. Even though she generally knows how to behave
herself, she recognises that Marta Erinsen is not the ideal
vehicle through which to deliver Barnow's message.
Early on, Marta decided it would be best if she had a
"safer" venue from which to preach. Since she exhibited
powers beyond those of mortal men, going about as a costumed
super-hero was a workable solution. As The Acolyte, she's
close to being a full-time advertisement for Barnowism. She
lectures at high schools, colleges and community group
meetings. It's been remarked that there is no more dangerous
stretch of Earth than the open space between Texas senator
Phil Graham of Texas and a microphone; the Acolyte is not
quite as "dangerous" in that regard, but she's on a first
name basis with most of the camera crews operating between
San Francisco and Vancouver, and is a regular guest on
television and radio talk shows.
Contacting the Acolyte is fairly easy. Several years back,
she rescued a number of people from a burning office
building. To show their gratitude, the company has set up a
website for the Acolyte. Visitors to the site are able to
post up to 3 Kb worth of text message, with option of doing
so publicly or privately. The Acolyte can be e-mailed or
faxed through the site. (At one point, there had been a
voice phone message to email option as well, but the
software proved buggy and it was removed last year.)
As super-heroes go, the Acolyte is certainly one of the most
moralistic. She is honest and lawful, and feels compelled to
devote herself to the service and protection of
unenlightened humanity. There is no one undeserving of her
help, and she will not refuse a request for help from
anyone, even the most loathsome of criminals. And one on
one, she conducts herself in the noblest manner possible,
with all the grace and honour of the heroes of Arthurian
romances. She is as fanatical in her dedication to her
crime-fighting as she to belief in Rosemary Barnow.
THE ACOLYTE'S POWERS
All of the Acolyte's powers stem from her ability to channel
Pure Matter into the world, with which she can accomplish a
variety of effects. She achieves Flight by expelling her
energic illusions behind her, providing lift and propulsion
and speeds up to 46 miles per hour. The matter begins to
dissipate immediately, creating a colourful trail in her
wake. The Acolyte can also perform Healing (see p.P15) by
combining Pure Matter with living tissue, fusing them and
restoring damage. Her Damage Resistance is an invisible
sheath of Pure Matter, constantly protecting her from
harm.
Her most dramatic use of Pure Matter are the solid illusions
she is able to create. This is modelled as Stone Missile,
but manifests as forms made of solid other-worldly energy
which can be used to fill an area - of any shape - up to
seven square hexes. These forms may be shaped to look like
anything the Acolyte wishes, made convincing with the use of
the Illusion Art. The energy is primarily an attack form,
inflicting up to 10d damage (doubled for knockback
purposes). In a less lethal manner, the power uses two
invented enhancements. The first is Advantageous Knockback
Only, which is essentially an optional (and therefore
enhancing) version of Knockback only; the Acolyte can choose
to make any attack do damage only for purposes of knockback.
The second is Controlled Knockback; with the use of this
enhancement, any attack (whether or not it does damage) that
generates knockback gives the Acolyte the option of choosing
which hex the target ends up in, provided it was within
range of the knockback done. For example, if she makes an
attack that results in five hexes of knockback, the victim
may end up in any hex within five hexes of his starting
location. (Given the visual nature of these energic
illusions, the attack could be made to look like a giant
hand picking the target up and putting them down, or a broom
pushing them along, etc..)
The Pure Matter channelled into this illusions can also
become an extension of the Acolyte's natural charisma and
extraordinary talent for oratory. She can use the Illusion
Art skill to give her illusions a level of reality that
makes them capable of having an emotion/psychological impact
on those who view them. In conjunction with her Enthrallment
skills, the Acolyte has become adept at creating images and
forms that are as psychologically "real" as they are
physically solid, the quintessential demonstration of Pure
Matter. In combat, the Acolyte will use these illusions to
give her an edge as appropriate, instilling a sense of fear
or awe in enemies, or a feeling of safety or peace in those
she protects. And in the course of her preaching, she uses
these emotionally-stimulating illusions to strengthen her
bond with her audience.
Finally, the same enlightened awareness that allows her to
see and use Pure Matter occasionally manifests in glimpses
of intuition in her dreams. Her Blessed advantage gives her
the gift of Oneiromancy; on any given morning, she spends 10
Fatigue, and on a 10- on 3d she will have had a dream with
possible oracular components. Note that the meaning of these
dreams is not necessarily obvious; she must interpret them
on her own. (Though it functions exactly as per p.M55, this
power is not magical.)
CANONICALITY
The Acolyte is written with the standard GURPS rules,
including the -100 point limit for disadvantages for supers.
Her Stone Missile - as a "special effect" (see p.SU7) - is
meant to represent energic illusions created from Pure
Matter. To help justify the beneficial aspects, the Animated
Illusions and Moving Illusions enhancements from the
Illusion super-power (p.SU61) were added to the Stone
Missile. In addition, the power also uses two invented
enhancements, described above.
WHAT IF?
The Acolyte is designed for a supers campaign, and the
nature of her origin and abilities are probably not
applicable for other genres. The mystical and
quasi-religious overtones, however, make her ideal for
cross-over supers campaigns; she would work well in a
Supers/Horror game in which super-people wage wars with
weapons (or entities) of Pure and Corrupted Matter. If
Martial Arts are a focus, the Acolyte's Pure Matter could be
the ultimate expression of Chi, a literal (and physical)
extension of her Spirit. If using the Faeries from Castle
Falkenstein, her powers could be related to Glamours, and
the Movie Screen Projection the barrier between the human
world and Arcadia. In an In Nomine/Supers cross-over, the
Acolyte might be on the side of the Archangels, manipulating
the Symphony by turning sound into energy... The
relationship of her powers to the Judeo-Christian God and to
the God of Rosemary Barnow's philosophy could be further
explored in a Supers game with a focus on Mythology,
Folklore or Mysticism.
ADVENTURE SEEDS
Search & Rescue: The PCs encounter the Acolyte helping
the Fire Department clean up an area of town damaged in a
recent supers battle. She's constructing supports to hold up
the wall and ceiling of a badly damaged building, so people
can get in and evacuate trapped citizens. It's a
Medical/Dental building, and there are no fewer than four
offices with explosive hazards, such as tanks of Nitrous
Oxide gas. Known heroes, the PCs are asked to help get
people out, before the tanks blow... In one office, the
damage has caused a false wall to collapse; judging from the
age of the mortar, the wall has been up for at least 30
years (the building having been built just after World War
II). The interior of the false wall is only about two feet
deep. Behind the wall lies a skeleton. And it's not quite a
human skeleton...
Cover-Ups: The PCs are out-of-town heroes visiting Oregon
following up on the murder of a fellow super back east. The
dead hero was a known advocate of Rosemary Barnow's
teachings, and the PCs have reason to suspect that his death
is related to that, and possibly tied all the way back to
the disaster at the Barnow ranch fifteen years ago... The
Acolyte is known to preach Barnow's ideals, and is also said
to be a virtuous and upright hero. So it's a little
bothersome that the PCs cannot find her, and when they
finally do, she refuses to talk to them. They interpret her
silence as an attempt to conceal her involvement, which puts
them in a bind: they know she has a personal stake in the
issue, as do they. How can they convince her that they mean
well? And that if the conspiracy is as big as it looks, she
may actually need their help.
- written by S D Anderson (sdanderson4_5@yahoo.com)
- edits & additional material by andi jones
(andi@angelwerks.com)
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