Inglorious Monsters:Maxwell Graves
Contents
Maxwell Graves
Maxwell Graves could be a famous movie star. He's got the look for it too - almost seven feet tall, shoulder-length red hair, full beard, vivid heterochromatic eyes (one sapphire blue, one emerald green) that seem to pierce to your soul, wide-brimmed black fedora, grey as fog detective trenchcoat, the works. He's like a god amongst mortals. But he's not - he's just an artist, a painter. Problem is, he's also a Beast. Devoured in his late twenties, Maxwell's true nature - his soul - is the Dead Dragon, a monstrous being of epic proportions, with a terrifying corrosive breath weapon, that resides in a rotting graveyard lair lit only by dim ghostly blue flames where the ground itself will eat away at you until you join the mounds of corpses beneath. Not only is he no longer human, but his new Hunger drives him to collect gemstones of all kinds, the more valuable and priceless the better.
And that's how the US government got him, when he set fire to a house while attempting to steal the expensive rainbow sapphire necklace an unfaithful wife received from her paramour, killing her and burning the place into molten, rotten sludge. He was captured, but instead of being killed, was offered a job that would suit his... unique talents.
Killing Nazis and their supernatural allies as part of a secret government unit.
And in exchange, not only does he get to go free with a full pardon, any treasure he finds while destroying the enemy soldiers is his to keep! He couldn't be happier. Well, he doesn't like the thought of killing his Kin - he'd much rather bring them over to his side instead - but you gotta do what you gotta do, and the Dark Mother doesn't mind a bit of sibling war every now and again.
Legend: Relentless
Life: Parental
Family: Ugallu
Hunger: Hoard (Collector, gemstones)
Horror: The Dead Dragon
Concept: Supernatural Artillery
Beats: 0
Experiences: 0
Aspirations
Expand my Lair
Meet a Ghost
Acquire Something Valuable
Status
Health: 9
Willpower: 4
Lair: 1
Satiety: 5/10
Size: 6
Defense: 6
Initiative Modifier: 6
Speed: 12
Conditions: Sated
Attributes
Intelligence 2
Wits 2
Resolve 2
Strength 2
Dexterity 4
Stamina 3
Presence 4
Manipulation 1
Composure 2
Skills
Academics 1
Crafts 1
Medicine 1
Investigation 1
Occult 1
Athletics 4 (Jumping)
Brawl 2
Firearms 3 (Rifles)
Larceny 2
Stealth 2
Survival 1
Weaponry 1
Animal Ken 1
Expression 1 (Painting)
Intimidation 2
Persuasion 2
Subterfuge 1
Merits
Allies (US Government) 2
Contacts (Military) 2
Giant
- +1 Size
Multilingual
- French
- German
Professional Training (Soldier) 2
- Asset Skills: Firearms, Survival
- Two dots of Contacts related to Profession
- 9-Again on Asset Skill rolls
Striking Looks 2
- +2 bonus to any Social rolls that would be influenced by his looks, including Expression, Intimidation, Persuasion, Subterfuge, or other rolls
Striking Looks, Advanced
- Add Rote Quality to Striking Looks rolls
Atavisms
Dragonfire
- Normal Effect: The Beast can blast individual targets in range (5/10/15) with gouts of fire. This counts as a ranged attack with a thrown weapon and requires a roll of Dexterity + Athletics – the opponent’s Defense. Damage is lethal and adds the Beast’s Lair dots as a weapon modifier. Flammable materials ignite on contact, turning the area into a raging inferno if it is not contained quickly. Then again, that may be the point.
Furthermore, fire causes no damage to the Beast, and she never suffers environmental penalties or damage caused by heat and smoke, which are like clear air to her. This is in addition to any environmental immunity from Lair Traits.
- Low Satiety: The Beast’s Dragonfire is capable of autofire as well as single blasts, including short, medium, and long bursts. This represents sustained torrents of fire, similar to a flamethrower, that can immolate multiple enemies or set large areas alight.
- Satiety Expenditure: Her next attack with Dragonfire has double its normal range and inflicts aggravated damage. Even incombustible materials can be reduced to ash by the onslaught, as Dragonfire ignores Durability equal to the Beast’s Lair dots. This is in addition to the normal and low Satiety effects.
Relentless Hunter
- Normal Effect: The Beast has incredible stamina and pushes on through injuries without complaint, knowing it is only a matter of time before he is at full strength again. Flesh knits together, burns pinken and smooth, and bruises shrink to nothing in seconds. Lost Health returns at the following rate:
- One point of bashing damage per turn. - One point of lethal damage every half hour. - One point of aggravated damage every three days.
The Beast also adds his Lair dots on Stamina + Resolve rolls made to resist poisons and toxins, and he can remain wide awake and active for a number of days equal to (10 – his Satiety dots) before succumbing to fatigue.
- Low Satiety: The Beast downgrades damage equal to twice his Lair dots at the end of any scene in which he is hurt. Aggravated becomes lethal, lethal becomes bashing, and bashing damage is fully healed. Furthermore, he relentlessly pursues his Hunger. He need not eat, drink, or rest as long as he is actively pursuing a Satiety increase, such as a Nemesis working through the night to set up an elaborate trap to punish the guilty.
- Satiety Expenditure: As a last resort, the Beast draws his Horror into his broken flesh, filling in the gaps and borrowing the strength to fight. All bashing and lethal damage, or aggravated damage equal to the character’s Lair, is immediately healed. Furthermore, the Beast cannot be stunned or incapacitated for the remainder of the scene, and suffers no penalties for injury. If the character’s rightmost box is marked with bashing or lethal damage, the Beast keeps fighting normally, though he still dies from aggravated damage in his rightmost Health box.
Wings of the Raptor
- Normal Effect: The character triples her vertical and horizontal jumping distances. As long as the character has a way to gain some altitude, she can glide up to a quarter mile per dot of Lair. She moves at twice her normal Speed rating while gliding, and can change direction at will. With a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll, she can swoop upwards, effectively climbing without using handholds. She can dive-bomb a target, as well. This requires a roll of Strength + Brawl – Defense (provided the target can see her coming), with a weapon bonus equal to 1 per ten feet of distance that the character dives. If the Beast has a method of inflicting lethal damage (a knife, the Limb from Limb Atavism), the damage is lethal instead.
- Low Satiety: When the Beast hungers, her Horror helps loosen gravity’s hold on her. Now she can climb any surface, no matter how slick, for one turn of movement. She covers distance as if she were sprinting. Once she has covered this distance, she can jump and glide, as per the normal effect, or keep going the next turn. A hungry Beast can scale skyscrapers in this manner, and leap off into the wind at any time.
- Satiety Expenditure: By exerting herself, the Beast can achieve true flight for a short time. The player spends a dot of Satiety and rolls Stamina + Athletics. The Beast can fly for a number of turns equal to her Lair plus the successes rolled. She moves at Speed x (Lair +1), and can climb in altitude, dip, swoop, or land as she sees fit. When the duration expires, the player can spend another dot of Satiety to reactivate the Atavism, or the character can simply glide to the ground.
Nightmares
Behold, My True Form!
- Dice Pool: Presence + Satiety - Stamina
- Normal: The attack inflicts one point of lethal damage per success. Victims slain by the attack often show signs of supernatural cause of death: their hair might turn stark white, or their entire body might be turned to stone, salt, or some other material.
- High Satiety: The attack roll gains the 8-again rule.
- Satiety Expenditure: For every point of Satiety spent, a successful attack inflicts +2 weapon damage.
- Exceptional Success: Apply one of the following Tilts in addition to the damage: Arm Wrack, Blinded, Deafened, Insane, Leg Wrack, or Stunned.
You Must Obey
- Dice Pool: Presence + Satiety vs. Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance
- Normal: For the duration of the scene, the victim is compelled to obey the Beast. Any attempt to ignore or countermand the Beast’s instructions provokes a breaking point. Orders that would obviously harm the victim receive a +2 bonus to the breaking point roll. Orders must be simple, single instructions, and cannot be “queued.” The Beast could order her victim to shoot his friend standing next to him, but if the Beast wanted his victim to drive across town, break into his friend’s house, and then shoot him, the Beast would have to accompany the victim and give each order as the previous task was completed.
- High Satiety: The Beast can issue complex commands, or multiple commands in sequence. She can give a number of orders equal to her Satiety rating at the time the Nightmare was invoked.
- Satiety Expenditure: When acting to fulfill the Beast’s commands, the victim either lowers the threshold for exceptional success to three successes or regains a point of Willpower. The victim chooses which before rolling.
Horror Attributes
Health: 9
Power: 5
Finesse: 4
Resistance: 4
Lair Traits
Corrosive (Major)
- Characters suffer one aggravated damage per turn of exposure, and objects lose one Durability per turn.
Poor Light (Minor)
- –2 penalty to visual-based Perception rolls, including ranged combat, rising to –3 at medium range and –4 at long range
Rotting (Major)
- Healing times are tripled while under a Rotting Lair’s influence, food spoils and rots, and the first point of Willpower regained by a character within the affected area is lost.
Lair Chambers
Heart: A rotting cemetery covered in gravestones and piles of gems dimly lit by ghostly blue will-o-the-wisps hovering over bubbling pools of necrotic acid.
