The Lizard

REAL NAME: Theodore C. Connors

CONCEPT:

QUOTES: (for in and out of game quotes)

Victorian to Modern Marvel Differences

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Backlog

In 1831, Theodore C. Connors was studying medicine at the University of Cambridge when he was offered a unique opportunity to serve as ship's doctor to a surveying expedition aboard the HMS Beagle. Alongside a young man who would one day be known the world over as Charles Darwin, Connors spent the following five years circumnavigating the globe. Of particular interest to the young physician was an island in Southeast Asia inhabited by a species of enormous carnivorous lizards with a unique ability to regenerate their own lost limbs. Connors, who had lost a foot to tetanus as a boy, wondered whether the lizards' regenerative capabilities might be extended to human patients, and was able to convince the ship's captain, one Robert FitzRoy, to allow him to capture a pair of the lizards for transport back to England.

Upon his return to Cambridge, Connors completed his doctorate and began studying the lizards full time. One night, believing he had discovered the secrets of their healing powers, he took a syringe of their blood that he had exposed to a powerful electric current and injected it into the stump of his own leg. The results were unexpected: while the young doctor's leg did indeed grow back, the serum also transformed him into a monstrous lizard. Thankfully, the effects faded quickly before he could do any damage.

When Connors returned to his human form, however, his leg had once again gone missing. Moreover, as he discovered, he had somehow become dependent on regular infusions of the lizards' blood to maintain his health. Frightened of what damage he might cause when in his uncontrolled monstrous form, Connors sequestered himself away in his family's estate to seek a cure.

Over fifty years have passed since then. Connors has not yet found a cure for his malady, but he has discovered a solution of lizards' blood and other chemicals that, when taken daily, allows him to maintain his health without transforming. As a side effect of either the serum or his new monstrous nature, he has also discovered that he no longer ages naturally. In the decades since his first transformation, he appears to have grown only a year or two older.

These days, Dr. Connors seldom leaves his estate, now home to hundreds of roaming lizards, which serve both as a source of blood and as objects of study. A correspondence with a professor of biology at Oxford, one Nathan Osborn, briefly offered the doctor a glimmer of hope that a cure could be found, but this, like all of his other efforts, ultimately proved fruitless. (The correspondence ended several years ago, shortly after one of Osborne's suggestions resulted in strange and unsettling new abilities manifesting themselves in his monstrous lizard form. The risk, Connors decided, was too great.)

His greatest fear is that he might misjudge his dose or otherwise lose control of the beast within him, and escape into the countryside to cause harm. In the past few years, this has happened several times, but thanks to a costumed dragoon calling himself "the unknowable Spyder-Man", he has always been thwarted before he could cause any real damage, allowing his better judgement to seize control and flee into the night. His true identity and nature are tightly-controlled secrets, known only to a few of his contemporaries at Cambridge ... and even they are now old men, with whom the truth will die unless passed on to someone else.

But what could necessitate the revealing of such a shocking secret?

What is your Heroic Motivation?

This is a description of your character's mindset and why they're willing to do the things they do. Include their general mindset, and define why they would have joined the Imperials team.

Complications or Character Flags

These complication or flags are things that tell the GM what the PLAYERS are interested in doing with their characters in the game. The advantage here is that the GM can look at these flags and tailor events in the game so folks are getting what they want for their characters. Any Complications on your character sheet are also flags to the GM of things you as a player want your character to confront in the game.

3x5

Friends

(list 3 people that would help you for free; list name, your relationship, their concept in 1-2 sentences, where are they now. The majority SHOULD be from your character's Marvel timeline equivalent.)

Contacts

(list 3 people that would help you for a price; list name, your relationship, their concept in 1-2 sentences, where are they now. The majority SHOULD be from your character's Marvel timeline equivalent.)

Enemies

(list 3 people that are your adversaries; list name, your relationship, their concept in 1-2 sentences, where are they now. The majority SHOULD be from your character's Marvel timeline equivalent.)

Locations

(list 3 locations in the game setting that are important to your character, important can be "good" or "bad"; list name, your relationship, the concept in 1-2 sentences, when last you were there. The majority SHOULD be from your character's Marvel timeline equivalent.)

Organizations

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AGE OF WONDERS - "The IMPERIALS"