Carpe Blogiem: Aeon Team Rosters – Part IV

As in the previous posts (see here, here, and here) I’m talking about my Aeon campaign and the various teams within it.

State of the C-Team
C-Team has been a bit bumpy. Loss of PK (who was the team lead) and the speeding up of the timeline for them caused a LOT of dissonance. I also had to adjust the scope due to player dissatisfaction (…I hesitate to use the word “dissatisfaction” because that’s not accurate). As +Travis Ellis said to me “Stop treating C-Team as a weird side project. We want to get more involved in the main stuff!” Which…was going to happen, but I was planning on doing some other tuff first. I chucked the idea and adjusted fast. The disappearance of PK’s character (assumed dead) and the shocking survival (SHOCKING I SAY!) of the “Subway Team” caused a speed up of almost 18 game sessions worth of plot in only 3 sessions. I did it. But it was messy. The current C-Team – now the third iteration of “The Marauders” have as a result of their survival of the kyberic fusion bomb gained metahuman capabilities. Or in +Kevin Smyth‘s – allowed him better control over his powers. Trained up and equipped, the Director is using them as the scalpel to the Cavalry’s broadsword. AEGIS wants Blue Skies down and with the C-Team’s apparent demise they can’t use the normal pressure tactics they do (hurting innocents, family members, and loved ones to distract or impair). Worst yet for Blue Skies they don’t know who is actually attacking them. All they know is someone keeps interfering and slowly diminishing their influence and power. Since both A-, B-, and C-Teams have taken extra measures to keep themselves hidden in their actions it’s gotta be spooky as hell to the Blue Skies boys. No one knows who the enemy is so everyone is the enemy.

You can read about the C-Team’s current exploits from this page.

Details
Scale: Global (the C-Team works out of New York City for AEGIS running ops around the world)
Basic Campaign Concept (season 3 to present): PCs are working to unravel a conspiracy and bring down a corporate giant.
Point Range: 500 points to 1,000 points.


Roster 
The C-Team consists of 5 players and 1 NPC.

Gunther Magnison (NPC): Gunther is big, strong, damn near invulnerable (he has I-Class invulnerability meaning if it doesn’t do 17d of damage or more he ignores it), and hates relish. That’s right. He hates relish. To the point that he will fall into a berserker rage if it’s in his presence. Gunther isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed (in fact, he’s functionally retarded and on the autistic spectrum), but he can take direction is incredibly loyal. He’s not technically an AEGIS agent, but is employed by them as a “specialist.” He’s a powered metahuman, but has so far disallowed anyone to study his abilities – including the doctor’s at Riker’s Island.

Marsh Langston (played by +Mavrick Fitzgerald): Marsh has been through hell in the last few sessions. His father betrayed him and used him in the worst possible way all for a profit and forced him to betray his fellow agents. Then Marsh found out that Mikhail was his half brother courtesy of Langston Sr. sowing some wild oats during the end of the Cold War. Marsh is incredibly gifted at social engineering, espionage, computers, and is whiz-bang in a multitude of scientific fields. Nominally, he’s Tyler’s right hand. After the incident at Nataapwpa he developed the ability to cast illusions of pure kyberic energy.

Miguel Drasil (played by +Andre Troche ): Miguel can best be described as “the ultimate team player.” It’s essentially his superpower (he took Teamwork! at IQ+6) and it has paid off BIG TIME even though it’s only been one session. With bonuses for Teamwork! and Mastermind! (thanks to Tyler) the time can overcome most obstacles. Andre (Miguel’s player) is a genuinely nice guy and fit in so smoothly with the rest of the team that there was little awkwardness when he joined. Miguel’s powerset involves memory allowing him to recall facts with ease and copy other people’s movements or actions giving him “eidetic reflexes.” He can also rapidly memorize data allowing him to temporarily gain skills or other learnable traits.

Mikhail Kovalenko (played by +Alex Raymond): Mikhail is a one-man army. Seriously. Give him the right weapons and he can take on twenty times his number. (Mikhail was built that way very purposefully.) He’s an ex-STAR2S (Special Tactical Assault and Rapid Response Squad) agent and it shows in his training. He can use any weapon at hand or anything at hand as a weapon. He can drive anything (and I mean anything) and is a helluva a soldier. He’s a mediocre spy, something his mother chides him on constantly. As the campaign has progressed he’s added fixer (he always knows a guy) and comedy relief to his repertoire. After the incident at Nataapwpa he developed the ability to assume an astral form and perceive the astral plane.

Niklos Xanthopoulos (played by +Kevin Smyth): First, Kevin’s portrayal of a misanthropic antisocial medical genius that somehow works with a group of PCs is amazing. I’ve seen little like it in all my years roleplaying or GMing. I didn’t think it was possible honestly. Niklos himself is a rare genius who will end up being one of those people who come along once every hundred years and change everything. OOPS. Did I write that down where Kevin could read it? Ah well. Niklos is the team medic, anthropologist, psychologist, and social scientist. He’s so good he’s literally driven people mad when they’ve tried to treat him (something he despises). Because Niklos is Niklos, he used PR-DNK-94 (the then incarnation of Blue Skies power-granting formula) on himself. Also because he’s Niklos he lucked out and actually got permanent metahuman abilities (this was a completely random roll with a 4 or less on 3d resulting in permanent ability and few side effects.) He gained the ability to duplicate himself (up to six Niklii at a time including himself) and very limited precognition. After the incident at Nataapwpa he further refined his powers reducing many of the side effects they produced. It was also revealed that he is in fact a chronokinetic – a time manipulator. Normally, in Aeon chronokinetics are either killed or put into chemical comas. They are simply too dangerous. There are a hand full that are allowed to exist – albeit constantly monitored – and Niklos is one of them due to his proven loyalty, mindfulness of his abilities, and the fact that he hasn’t shown the ability to actually travel time…yet.

Tyler J. Moody aka AGENT VERACITY (played by +Travis Ellis): Tyler had to assume the mantle of team leader after the death of Marlowe and has done reasonably well (so far). He found out that his own father was not who he thought he was (he was known as “Rook” and headed up his own special STAR2S team to hunt down and hopefully kill Marlowe) and is very conflicted about it. His parent’s death weighs heavily on him and though he tries to soldier on he occasionally has moments where it shows. Tyler is an incredibly gifted spy, infiltrator, saboteur, and team leader. His unique brain chemistry allows him to assume roles and effectively rewire his brain in the process. His role as “Agent Veracity” the kooky crazy agent who goes through people’s garbage was in fact – a role. One he played very well.  After the incident at Nataapwpa he developed (activated a latent?) the ability to manipulate information and data. This literally allows him to rewrite what people know in his area and make him hard to remember. He can also divine information by getting small tidbits and putting it together with intuitive leaps.

State of the D-Team
Losing Daniel was like losing an arm. I’d built part of the plot around his character and while he was on hiatus I couldn’t put that plot on freeze too. So I continued it. I had his character drop into a coma and disappear off with Maria so she could help him recover. What’s wrong with him? Stay tuned to find out. The PCs pivoted rather quickly and I’m grateful as hell for that. So far, D-Team remains steady as it ever was and I’m still waiting to see how things unfold.

You can read about the D-Team’s current exploits from this page.

Details
Scale: National (the team is operating out of the postapocalyptic world of Aeon).
Basic Campaign Concept (season 1 to present): PCs are trying to get an old stranger to New York in an effort to prevent a second apocalypse after one of them had a vision.
Point Range: 600 points to 1,600 points.

Roster 
The D-Team consists of 4 players and 1 NPC.

Charles E. C. Moody aka “Eddie” (Played by +Ignus Pyre): Eddie has an extremely storied background and Richard put a lot of work into it. Charles himself was a member of STARRS and ran his own team to combat dangerous threats – including the god-like Marlowe. After he derailed too many of Marlowe’s plans Marlowe had him (and his wife) killed – or so he thought. Eddie’s death participated a Dark Fog event which pulled him through time and into the future. Maybe it’s due to luck or maybe it’s due to planning, but Eddie is keenly suited to the future thanks to his skills, perspicacity, and sheer stubbornness. Eddie also has a moral compass that always points true north and is the heart of the team. He’s a good man and does things for others without expecting compensation.

           He’s also a metahuman with ESP abilities. including the capability of sensing Dark Fog and Dark Fog creatures when they get to close, the ability to detect lies so fine-tuned he could not even Marlowe could lie to him, remote viewing (which is VERY painful for him to use), blisteringly painful visions, and is himself invisible to similiar divinatory abilities. (a gift he passed onto his son)

Jacob Edward Reed aka “Doc” (Played by +Asta Kask): A survivor of the Black Swan and eking by somehow. Jacob Edward Reed (direct descendent of Walter Reed) would be a miracle in any timeline – he is a healer – that is, he possesses metahuman powers to heal others of wounds (including himself, which is part of the reason why he has survived so long). With practice and time he can theoretically restore any caliber of wound as long as the target is still alive. (or even recently dead)
          Jacob himself is a kind man of middling years who takes his Hippocratic Oath as seriously as he can given the situations he finds himself in. Knowing that metahuman powers are frowned upon he often disguises his healing of a subject with an injection of saline solution (“med-sins from the Old World”) to keep his powers secret. Like Eddie he’s got a well-grounded moral compass, unlike Eddie his morals extend from his deep faith and his hope to build a better tomorrow and refuge for those with powers like his.

King (NPC): King is a maine coon cat – a rather large one. He possesses human level intellect, but is still a cat. He also seemingly possessed “cat meme” powers. This is something that drives Nick insane because logically he shouldn’t have those abilities…but he does somehow. Lazer eyez, flight that leaves a rainbow trail, deadly belly rubs – it’s all there. And kind of terrifying. King is also quite useful in a fight and utterly loyal to Jacob (who he “owns”).

Kurst Vetrson (Played by +Antoni Ten Monrós): Kurst is a freak of nature. A half-human, half-wendigo (cold-adapted vampires in Aeon) child of a mere 16 years. His youth is counterbalanced by his deep knowledge of the wilderness and expert archery skills. He’s suspicious of others, but his gruff exterior hides the compassion that somehow still beats within his heart after all he’s been through. Kurst possesses the ability to manipulate the cold and ice – power he isn’t always in control of. He does his best by the others and Eddie looks upon him as a son of sorts – an affection which Kurst returns in his own way.

Nicodemus J. Faust aka “Nick” (Played by +Hal Batty): Nicodemus is a terrible person. No. Seriously. He’s kind of a monster, but his father (Marlowe) made him that way and his wife redeemed him for a time. Until his father murdered her and his children anyways. From that point on Nicodemus has spent every waking moment trying to find a way to get revenge. Nick is a sorceror of the highest caliber and also possess metahuman abilities that allow him to influence others (subtly or otherwise). But his true ability comes from his knowledge. Nick is a polymath, polyhistor, and an otherwise expert or just about everything. He’s a masterful manipulator, planner, trickster, and is generally the smartest man in the room. He knows how to get others to do what he wants without them noticing and he does it well. He is, in short, a magnificent bastard. Hal plays him brilliantly and like Niklos the character somehow works even though the concept usually doesn’t really play well for a group.


Picking Over the Bones
These two teams should have been separated more time-wise. It was a mistake on my part. I only took three months between starting them up and I really should have did about 4-6. Still. I’m rather happy overall with how things have turned out. C-Team is converging with B-Team and the D-Team remains a place I can tell stories that link to past events (which are happening in other games). D-Team will be the last of the times to converge with the others – if at all. It’s my way of showing the repercussions of what’s happening in “modern day” Aeon.

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