She stood, surveying the wreckage. While her eyes scanned for signs of life she mentally willed her hair, sending it searching among the remains of the plane, tossing sheets of warped and twisted metal through the air as carelessly as a child throws a discarded toy. Nothing else moved.
By her side stood a statue, the perfect form of a man holding a portable rocket launcher, a look of truimph mingled with surprise etched on his visage.
Medusa pursed her lips. One of these days she will remember to ask questions first, and petrify later. Right now, she needed to know she was not the last member of the Descendants of Legend.
For the first time in her life, Persephone Gorga felt alone.
Dirty little secret: In a world where myths and legends have descendants, there’s an awful lot of bad (and, for that matter, good) guys out there who would literally kill for the head of a medusa. She prefers to keep it attached to her shoulders, thanks very much.
Notes: Here’s one from my campaign to yours; Medusa is one of my own PCs from our longest-ever-running superheroes campaign. Her Secret ID is Persephone Gorga, veterinary surgeon. This is a somewhat cleaned-up version stated back to PL10/150pp perfect as a starting character.
She’s basically a two-shot bunny with prehensile hair that can reach up to 50′ and lift about two and a half tons. If that’s not enough her petrification gaze can turn anyone to stone (for a whole year, no less!) though it takes all of her concentration (and a full round action) to use.
And no, she’s not related to Medusa from the Inhumans. Just so you know.
Medusa AKA Persephone Gorga, PL10 150pp
Str 14/24 (with hair), Dex 20, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 24
Tough +3/+9, Fort +8, Ref +10, Will +8
Attack +5, Grapple +12/+18, Defense +10, Init +5Prehensile Hair +13 DC22
– Additional Limbs 3 (Improved Grapple)
– Elongation 4 (50′, Precise, Limited:Hair only, Improved Throw, Improved Trip)
– Enhanced Strength 10 (Limited:Hair only)
– Super-Strength 2 (Limited:Hair only)Petrification Gaze +11 DC Fort 18 (80′, Transform 8: Flesh to Stone, Slow Fade 10 (1 year), Duration 1, Action 1, Distracting, Full Power)
Computers +4, Craft:Artistic +8, Handle Animal +11, KS:Arcane +8, KS:History +6, Language 2, Medicine +7, Sense Motive +5, Sleight of Hand +9, Stealth +7
Accurate Attack, Animal Empathy, Artificer, Attack Specialization 3 (Hair), Attack Specialization (Petrification Gaze) 4, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 5, Dodge Focus 5, Equipment 1
Commlink, Mini-Tracer, Multi-Tool, PDA, Spandex Suit (Tough +1)
Nice character. And I love te Inhumans :)
A question, one DM to another. How do you handle powers like Flesh to Stone? Or in general, every “save or die” powers?
In my previous campaign, we had a guy with Domination, extended to last a month or something. Everytime we had an encounter, he just spammed Dominate until all the opponents where dominated.
That made for a very not-fun game, until i just asked him to make a new character.
I really love MnM system, but it seems to easy to”break”. What’s your suggestion?
Thanks!
Me, I like Save or Die effects because they have role-playing consequences. For example in one of our games Medusa turned The Feathered Man, a local crime boss, to stone rather than have him captured and sent to prison – where, doubtless, he’d be out in a matter or days.
This created a power vacuum among the underworld which caused more trouble, crimes and outbreaks of violence than would have happened if The Feathered Man was around and keeping a firm control on things.
Similarly, I’ve used save or die effects in the hands of villains when a player wants to retire a character and generate a new one. Having a hero die spectacularly is one heck of a way to go, and sets the other heroes up to avenge his death/let his legacy live on/mourn his passing.
In other words – the best way to balance a save or die effect is to role-play the after effects. Sure makes the players think twice next time they generate an “unstoppable” character :D