Villain idea: Bloody Mary

[DtMK]

As part of my Armageddon Unlimited game, I have started the wheels in motion to point to a new power in Dyval. And after one of the NPC villains has demonstrated powers related to mirrors, I want to make a truly frightening NPC that may have moved up the ranks in horror. I've already implied in the game that the Deevils are reluctant to say her name. That character is...Bloody Mary.

I'm already working on some ideas that are pretty frightening, but I'd like to see what you all think. What would you suggest for someone that may have moved from urban legend to channeling that power as to become something more, even ranking in the Netherworld of Dyval?

[Severus Snape]

Well, the Immortal power category comes to mind. APS Blood (for the bloody part), Mirrors or Windows for another power. The rest...well, it depends on what else you want her to do.

[Lenwen]

As part of my Armageddon Unlimited game, I have started the wheels in motion to point to a new power in Dyval. And after one of the NPC villains has demonstrated powers related to mirrors, I want to make a truly frightening NPC that may have moved up the ranks in horror. I've already implied in the game that the Deevils are reluctant to say her name. That character is...Bloody Mary.

I'm already working on some ideas that are pretty frightening, but I'd like to see what you all think. What would you suggest for someone that may have moved from urban legend to channeling that power as to become something more, even ranking in the Netherworld of Dyval?

I've done this very thing with native american demons an other such creatures. Its awsome fun an VERY entertaining when you begin to use stuff like this which translates VERY well to the younger generation an keeps them highly entertained.

Great job my friend hehe .

[AlanGunhouse]

Mirror Mastery (Major) seems to be a requirement. As to the rest, there are a couple of demon summoning powers in ArU that I remember. What if she can summon demons through mirrors. What makes that scary? What if, when she does so, it leaves the true name of the demon etched on the mirror? That would frighten any demon...

[Regularguy]

Invulnerability makes for a passable "horror movie" bag of tricks: she keeps grinning eerily while ordinary weapons have no effect; she performs superhuman feats of strength all out of proportion to her frame; she goes down still as death, but then gets back up, after getting hit by a car; you set her on fire and she doesn't seem to notice but cackles maniacally and keeps on coming. And so on.

Now figure she's also got Multiple Selves, and so can work other classic effects. It's late at night and you think you glimpse something in a mirror -- but there's nothing there when you spin around. Or she definitively appears to you one night, and you recoil in fear and rush out of the room while locking her in -- and she's already behind you before you turn back around. (Sure, the former is just Duplicate #3 getting instantly absorbed back into the unseen original, and the latter is just Duplicate #11 waiting outside while you flee from Duplicate #7, but so what? It's unnerving enough for an urban legend.)

But to bump her up to "ranking in the netherworld" status, make her a Three Major Powers type with a Transfer/Possess ability she keeps very quiet. No one knows that she's long since created duplicates who've already slumped to the ground to go joyriding in other bodies; maybe half-a-dozen, maybe a dozen? The horrifying point is, if you and some friends are playing "Bloody Mary" late one night during a storm, one of you may well freak out and start killing the others -- or may cut her own throat right in front of you instead -- or maybe you black out and wake up in a mental hospital, straitjacketed and sedated and babbling.

If you're a netherworld entity to be reckoned with, then mightier entities will tell you they're reluctant to speak her name -- possibly because they've heard that from others, but possibly because they're her and just haven't killed themselves yet. So if you think there's safety in numbers, then when you least expect it you'll get hit with Negate Super Abilities or Disruptive Touch or whatever -- and I say "or whatever" because the powers at her fingertips depend on what your allies can do. If, say, one of 'em can use Holographic Memory Projection to do tricks with mirrors or momentarily appear in her likeness while you're cowering from "her" Horror Factor -- hey, that's just more bits of embroidery for the story, right? Just so long as none of them ever spell out what's really going on.

No, the only hope is to track down a lair you don't even know about, where Bloody Mary watches over the sleeping bodies of her sisters -- possibly using Transfer/Possess on them in sequence, making sure each one gets food and drink and exercise? And even if you wipe all of them out, the invulnerable original would still be out there, somewhere, now bent on revenge and looking for a new body.

[wolfsgrin]

One of the Nightbane books has an interesting take on the bad guys that won't die or stay dead, like Jason Vorhees and others. Could base it off that.

[Daniel Stoker]

Go with APS: Blood but give it a twist, have her still look normal even when transformed but just have that be a 'skin' or illusion on top of her. So ranged attacks just go through her and leave a bloody mess, and then when they get close go all 'natural' on them. Sure fire way to confuse and freak them out.


Daniel Stoker

[Regularguy]

Go with APS: Blood but give it a twist, have her still look normal even when transformed but just have that be a 'skin' or illusion on top of her. So ranged attacks just go through her and leave a bloody mess, and then when they get close go all 'natural' on them. Sure fire way to confuse and freak them out.

You could do that by layering Holographic Memory Projection over APS: Blood; so long as folks don't get within maybe five feet of her, she can have whatever appearance she wants -- but as soon as you get close, it'd be obvious that something's not right (and whenever she wants, she can of course drop the act altogether). The best part, to my mind, is that she can also use HMP to work the urban-legend "bloody mary" trick by making images appear in mirrors to freak people the hell out.

IMHO it's still a bit lightweight for that "ranking in the Netherworld" caliber the OP had in mind, but a pretty solid base for her to rely on whenever she's not, um, exploiting Gem Powers to quietly spread convincing rumors about herself by coupling Empathic Transmission with Hypnotic Suggestion while in one illusory disguise or another -- or firing up an emergency dose of Invulnerability and Mind Block for a particularly brutal fight, or just beating a hasty retreat with Wingless Flight and Invisibility, or whatever.

[AlanGunhouse]

Thanks RGG. It was what I came up with to make a mortal be a power to be feared in Hades or Dyval.

[DtMK]

One of the Nightbane books has an interesting take on the bad guys that won't die or stay dead, like Jason Vorhees and others. Could base it off that.

What book is that in? I have most of the NB books.

[Kovoston]

I'd say this would be a great Nightbane concept because they alredy have the mirror lands and the demonic mirror Dopplegangers on page 158 of the core book!
G

[wolfsgrin]

One of the Nightbane books has an interesting take on the bad guys that won't die or stay dead, like Jason Vorhees and others. Could base it off that.

What book is that in? I have most of the NB books.

That's a good question. Just ran through the rifter index, doesn't look to be in one of those. At work atm, when I get home I'll thumb through my NB books.

[AlanGunhouse]

One of the Nightbane books has an interesting take on the bad guys that won't die or stay dead, like Jason Vorhees and others. Could base it off that.

What book is that in? I have most of the NB books.

That's a good question. Just ran through the rifter index, doesn't look to be in one of those. At work atm, when I get home I'll thumb through my NB books.

I think that might be a type of entity originally introduced in Beyond the Supernatural.

[wolfsgrin]

One of the Nightbane books has an interesting take on the bad guys that won't die or stay dead, like Jason Vorhees and others. Could base it off that.

What book is that in? I have most of the NB books.

That's a good question. Just ran through the rifter index, doesn't look to be in one of those. At work atm, when I get home I'll thumb through my NB books.

I think that might be a type of entity originally introduced in Beyond the Supernatural.

Was it in a rifter/ That's the only thing I can think of. I'll look through the rifters that have BTS articles. Now I'm curious, it was a neat concept and it would seem to fit really well with this concept.