Legion of Mystery

Welcome to the world of Spirit of the Century! Pulp Action in a poorly researched world of plot holes and spelling errors.

THE THREAD
THE RULEBOOK

Storyteller:
DavidalBarron - Spider Frost, hack pulp writer.

Players - Character, Description - Meta - Enemy
feeddannow - Beasle Wattsworth, Tomb Robber - Dante Rays - Miranda Wattsworth
Mendokusai - Mina/Milo Mengele, Creepy Doctor - Olivia Martini - Reichsinspekteurr Karl
Zombie_Lord_Demus - Ace Steel, Cultist - Jack Irons - The Dreaded Sky-Pirate Roberts
Kiplingskat - Velma Valentine, Sassy Pilot - Jessica Simms - Xander Drake
Irishopolis Murphey O'Malley, Mad Scientist - Oliver Albright - Janet the Parrot

Beasle Wattsworth

Miranda Wattsworth

RIVAL
Miranda Wattsworth

• Soul Sucking Harpy
• "...for old time's sake?"
• "I own you!"
• True Love, True Hate
• Soul Sister Janet
• [Aspect6]
• [Aspect7]
• [Aspect8]
• [Aspect9]
• [Aspect10]

Assumed Key Skill(s):
Empathy, Rapport, Art, Survival

Rumored Stunts:

Popular Gal [Rapport]
You’re adept at catching the eye of the opposite sex, and keeping it once you’ve got it. Any seduction attempts you make with Rapport receive a +2 technique bonus provided the target is someone who could be receptive to it (this is not always a simple case of gender and preference).

Razor Tongue [Art]
The artist has a way with words, and knows how to craft the most exquisite insults. Whenever making a social roll that uses such words, he may automatically complement the effort with his Art skill – this is particularly potent when complementing Intimidation to get a rise out of someone, and in such a case, grants an additional +1 regardless of the level of skill.

Poison Words [Art] Requires Razor Tongue.

The artist’s skill at satire is so profound as to take the whole audience with him. The artist may choose a target normally, and that target need not be in the audience (though it should be one familiar to the audience). Normally, aspects resulting from a performance may not be specific; with this stunt, however, the player may specify the target in any aspect he puts on the scene. Thus, while an artist might normally be able to add the “Hate” aspect to a scene, but one with this stunt may make it “Hate Lord Octavian”.

Hit Them Where It Hurts [Empathy]
Your skill at reading people makes you adept at provoking a strong emotional response if you’re trying to get them angry, depressed, or something similar. Normally, the Intimidation skill would be used for such efforts; however, if you’ve succeeded at any Empathy roll against the target previously, you may use Empathy to wage such psychological warfare instead. In the hands of a character with high Empathy, this is especially lethal when combined with a successful read on someone that reveals an aspect.

Ride Anything [Survival]
If it can be ridden like a riding beast, you can ride it. You suffer no penalties or increased difficulty for a lack of familiarity, no matter how strange the mount, be it dinosaur, mechanical spider-robot, or Martian bird of prey.

Mina/Milo Mengele

Reichsinspekteurr Karl

VILLAIN
Reichsinspekteurr Karl

Known Aspects:

• "I'm not asking."
• The Dark Side
• "Xander, deal with this."
• [Aspect4]
• [Aspect5]
• [Aspect6]
• [Aspect7]
• [Aspect8]
• [Aspect9]
• [Aspect10]
• [Aspect11]
• [Aspect12]

Assumed Key Skill(s):
Intimidation

Rumored Stunts:
Scary
This character is just someone you don’t want to cross, and that’s clear even to other intimidating folks. Normally, Intimidation attempts are resisted by Resolve; with this stunt, the character can use his Intimidation skill to resist Intimidation attempts.

Aura of Menace Requires Scary.

Characters with an Aura of Menace are the terror of all those who oppose them. Others are often powerless to describe what exactly it is about the character that is unsettling, but regardless, it has the effect of rooting them to the spot and believing the threats the guy makes.

Once per scene per target, the character may spend a fate point to intimidate a target as a free action, no matter what the circumstances, immediately (if between actions), or immediately after the current action underway.

This free action takes place in addition to any other action the character might take during the exchange.

Aura of Fear Requires Aura of Menace.

The character’s intimidating appearance and attitude is potent, making him able to intimidate entire crowds. As a full action, and only once per scene, the character may spend a fate point and make an intimidation attempt against all opponents in the scene. The effort is made at a -2 to the roll, but the character only rolls once, essentially setting the defensive difficulty that everyone must beat. If the effort at least beats the quality level of the minions present in the scene, at least half their number are automatically affected by the Intimidation effort regardless of their roll. This effect on minions may be cancelled if they have a leader with Leadership present, who may take a second defensive action on their behalf, using that skill.

The Promise of Pain Requires Scary.

The character makes a promise (really, a threat) to a target, and makes an attack using Intimidation. If he scores a successful hit of one or better on the target’s mental stress track, he may spend a fate point to immediately force a psychological consequence instead. The consequence must represent an appropriate response (such as folding up in fear, or a broken spirit) to the threat.

Steely Gaze Requires Scary.

Your character’s unflinching gaze can lock an opponent in place. When a character with this stunt looks an opponent in the eyes and makes an Intimidation check, it locks the two of them into a contest that will last until either something interrupts it or one of them flinches. Both characters are locked in a contest of wills, and can only take Intimidation actions against each other until one or the other either takes a consequence, concedes, or is interrupted (by, say, a gunshot). Any defense rolls either makes against an interrupting action while this is in effect is at -2.

Fearsome Gaze Requires Steely Gaze.

Your character’s gaze is so terrifying that those faced with it can end up paralyzed with fear. This stunt is used in the same fashion as Steely Gaze, but if the opponent loses to the point of taking a consequence, he takes two consequences, one right after the other, immediately. Even if this means he’s taken out, the target retains the option to concede after recording the consequence, thus keeping his right to define the nature of his defeat (subject to the gazer’s approval).

Ace Steel

The Dreaded Sky-Pirate Roberts

RIVAL
The Dreaded Sky-Pirate Roberts

Aspects:

• "Pride is my favorite sin..."
• Atomic Zeppelin
• Pirate Code of Honor
• The Meaning of Fear.
• [Aspect5]
• [Aspect6]
• [Aspect7]
• [Aspect8]
• [Aspect9]
• [Aspect10]

Assumed Key Skill(s):
Resolve, Alertness

Rumored Stunts:
Smooth Recovery [Resolve]
While most characters with Resolve can keep things together under stress, for your character it is second nature, allowing him to regain his footing in the face of even the direst of outcomes outside of physical conflict. This stunt allows the character to take one additional moderate, social or mental consequence than normal, allowing him to take up to four total consequences of that variety.

Unflappable [Resolve] Requires Smooth Recovery.

The character is simply not prone to fear. While Intimidation efforts against him might provoke other emotions, they can rarely scare him; he gains a +2 to his Resolve when defending against a purely fear-based Intimidation action.

Right Place, Right Time [Resolve] Requires Unflappable.

The character seems to always be in a safe spot, without moving in any obvious way. When engaged in physical combat, characters with this stunt may use Resolve as their combat skill when defending, and may also use it to move or take cover (so long as they merely saunter; no sprints allowed).

To the outside world, it appears that the character is simply staying put and unfazed as gunfire and other attacks miss him by scant inches, or is picking up his undisturbed martini as the werewolf rushes past. Circumstance conspires to leave the character undisturbed so long as his defense is not beaten.

Danger Sense [Alertness]
The character maintains a quick and easy awareness of ambushes and other nasty surprises – perhaps preternaturally, perhaps simply due to finely tuned mundane senses. Whenever ambushed (see page XX), the character is able to take a full defensive action, gaining a +2 on his defense roll, regardless of whether or not he’s surprised (if he is surprised, dropping his base defense to Mediocre, this stunt takes his base defense up to Fair).

Saw It Coming [Alertness] Requires Danger Sense.

The character is never surprised; he may always take a full defensive action when ambushed, and his base defense is never reduced to Mediocre by surprise.

Velma Valentine

Xander Drake

RIVAL
Xander Drake

Known Aspects:

• "...and I get paid for this too?"
• Cheerful executioner
• "With pleasure, Reichsinspekteurr"
• [Aspect4]
• [Aspect5]
• [Aspect6]
• [Aspect7]
• [Aspect8]
• [Aspect9]
• [Aspect10]

Assumed Key Skill(s):
Weapons

Rumored Stunts:
Anything Goes [Weapons]
Your character suffers no complications for an awkward or improvised weapon – virtually anything can be a lethal weapon in his hands, as long as he can comfortably and casually lift it.

The key here is that the weapon must be improvised – a chair, a priceless urn, a beer bottle. There’s also a catch: most improvised weaponry doesn’t often survive more than a few uses.

However, your character should never need to spend a fate point in order to declare that an improvised weapon is close at hand, unless his surroundings have been deliberately prepared against this (such as a prison cell). When using the Weapons skill to throw objects at a target, this stunt means he often has an easy supply of ammunition at hand.

Close At Hand [Weapons]
Close at Hand allows your character to bring his weapon to hand faster than the eye can track. He never takes a supplemental action penalty when drawing his weapon if he has it nearby or on his person. If someone is actively blocking such an action (see page XX), you may treat that block as if it had a value two steps lower.

Combined with Anything Goes (above), this character is effectively always effortlessly armed if he’s in an even moderately cluttered environment.

Weapons of the World [Weapons]
Every kind of proper (not improvised) hand-held melee weapon in the world has been in your hands at one point or another. Your experience is extensive and profound; you never face a familiarity penalty regardless of how strange the weapon you’re using is. Further, if you tell a quick (two or three sentence) story about how you came to use such a weapon in times past, you may get a +1 bonus for a scene, once per “new” weapon, per session, at no cost. This story may either be out loud or as an internal monolog ue shared with the other players at the table.

Infuriate [Intimidation]
Intimidation gives you a real talent for scaring people, but sometimes fear isn’t an option. That doesn’t mean you can’t still get up someone’s nose, so long as you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of the control that fear gets you.

Whenever deliberately trying to get someone angry with you, you receive a +2 bonus. If this results in an attack or other action against you by your target, you may use Intimidation to complement the skill you use on the first exchange, no matter the circumstance – after all, you made it happen, so you were ready for it.

Subtle Menace [Intimidation]
The character exudes menace far in excess of his capability to act. Even bound and behind prison bars, the character is so ripe with the promise of the awful things he could do that he’s still scary. This character may use Intimidation no matter what the power imbalance in the situation is, and reduces his target’s bonuses for acting from a superior position by 2 (to a minimum of +0).

Murphey O'Malley

Janet the Parrot

VILLAIN
Janet the Parrot

Known Aspects:

• Inhuman Witch
• Uncanny Evasion
• [Aspect3]
• [Aspect4]
• [Aspect5]
• [Aspect6]
• [Aspect7]
• [Aspect8]
• [Aspect9]
• [Aspect10]
• [Aspect11]
• [Aspect12]

Assumed Key Skill(s):
Stealth

Rumored Stunt(s):
In Plain Sight [Stealth]
Your character suffers no environment-based difficulty increases when using Stealth. This means that even when he’s out in the open and wouldn’t normally be able to justify using Stealth, he may. This also means that, once hidden, even people actively searching for him (page XX) do not get a +2 to their Alertness or Investigation rolls.

This ability only functions so long as your character does not move, and does not do anything other than hide. The moment he does something else, he breaks cover and is immediately visible.

Master of Shadows [Stealth] Requires In Plain Sight.

Your character is one with the shadows, and lives in every darkened corner, unheard and unseen. You gain the full benefit of In Plain Sight, but may also move one zone per exchange without automatically breaking stealth, allowing you to remain hidden while moving, even when you shouldn’t be able to hide in the first place.

If your character is in an environment that could give a bonus to stealth (like one with a Dark or Smokey aspect) or even one that would normally justify the use of Stealth to hide, you may pay a fate point to make a full sprint action without automatically breaking stealth.

The upshot of this stunt is as follows: Whenever the character moves while hidden, discovery penalties (see page XX) may still apply, but are cut in half. Outside of conflict, this leaves observers at +1 for a cautious creep, +2 for walking pace, +3 for a jog (short sprint) and +4 for an out-andout run (long sprint); inside conflict, observers only get a +1 to detect the character for every zone moved in an exchange. If used in combination with Like the Wind (see page XX), these discovery bonuses are eliminated entirely.

Quick Exit [Stealth]
A momentary distraction is all you need to vanish from the scene. Provided you are not in the midst of a conflict, you may roll a quick contest between your Stealth and the highest Alertness in the room. If you succeed, the next time someone turns to look at or talk to you, you’re not there.

Vanish [Stealth] Requires Quick Exit.

This stunt functions the same as Quick Exit (above), but the character may vanish even if he is in a conflict, as a full action. This requires some dramatic flourish (smoke bombs or bright flashes are classics) or the invocation of an appropriate environmental aspect (like The Darkness of the New Moon).

Shadowed Strike [Stealth] Requires Master of Shadows and Vanish.

The character strikes from out of the darkness, leaving his foes bewildered and in pain. When hidden, the character can launch an attack while remaining hidden, using his Stealth for any defense rolls for the duration of that exchange.

Deadly Shadows [Stealth] Requires Shadowed Strike.

When using the Shadowed Strike method the character may use his Stealth to make attacks as well, rather than using his Weapons skill or the like.