Arc Dream Publishing

delta green—the black company—godlike—and more

Characters for ‘Eschaton, Inc.,’ an eventual scenario for GRIM WAR

grimwar-cover-sampleWritten by Shane Ivey, © 2013.

“Eschaton, Inc.” is a Grim War scenario and campaign framework that I’ve been tinkering with for a couple of years, off and on. It’s about American private security contractors working a high-pay, high-risk, low-morale assignment in the Middle East. The adventure itself still has a way to go, but the pregenerated sample player characters are done and hey, it’s fun to share.

These characters include four mutants and two sorcerers, all working for private security firm Escutcheon, Inc. The mutants are all military veterans, ex-soldiers who jumped at a chance to earn top dollar in the private sector with their superpowers after sweating and bleeding for chump change for Uncle Sam. The sorcerers are stuck in the job by circumstance. If they had their choice, they would rather be just about anywhere else in the world. They don’t have their choice. Of course players would be welcome to make up their own characters for the adventure, whenever it comes out.

A Note About Archetypes

In Grim War, the Mutant archetype allows you to have superhuman powers, and its Permission defines how broad your powers can be. Some Mutants have broader powers than others.

Sorcerers are characters who (usually) have no superhuman powers of their own and thus have no archetype, but know how to summon spirits that can do powerful, magical things on their behalf. See this article for details on sorcery in Grim War.

These characters were created for a Grim War campaign where the player characters are allowed no more than 10 points to spend on their Archetypes. Leftover points go into Stats, Skills, or Powers.

Jennifer Halk

An ex-Army underachiever. Despite her mutant power she didn’t have the drive to get into Squadron A1 or to hold down a regular job in the real world.

Description

Wirily muscular and in good shape. Constantly grinning. Lazy to the bone. Loads of tattoos. Age 24.

Archetype: Mutant

Source: Genetic
Permission: One Power
Cost: 1 Point

Stats

Body 3, Coordination 3, Sense 2
Mind 2, Charm 3, Command 2

Secondary Stats

Base Will 5
Willpower 5

Motivations

Loyalty: Your Buddies (2)
Passion: ‘Me’ Time (3)

Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 3d (6d), Brawling 3d (6d), Melee Weapon (Bayonet) 2d (5d)

Coordination Skills: Driving 3d (6d), Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 2d (5d)

Sense Skills: Perception 2d (4d)

Mind Skills: Knowledge (Mechanics) 2d (4d), Language (Pashto) 1d (3d), Navigation 2d (4d), Streetwise 1d (3d), Tactics 1d (3d)

Charm Skills: Lie 2d (5d), Perform (rap) 2d (5d), Persuade 2d (5d)

Command Skills: Intimidation 2d (4d), Stability 2d (4d)

Powers

HALK SMASH! (7D+1WD)

By smacking your fist and open hand together you can smash the hell out of just about anything you see. Sadly, there are limits. You can’t smash something as heavy as a reinforced bunker or a steel vault door. But how often do you run into those? With one smash you can flatten a big truck or helicopter or disable an M1 tank; with two smashes you can flatten that tank all the way. Your power has a range of a little over 100 yards, so you have to get pretty close. It makes a LOT of noise.

In game terms, to smash something you roll seven dice (7d) and then take another die (the Wiggle Die) and set it at any value you want. That means you can automatically get a successful roll. And if you want to smash more than one thing in a round with multiple actions, it’s not hard.

People can try to dodge your power. And who could blame them? If your power succeeds, it does Width + 3 in Shock and Killing damage to every one of the target’s hit locations—that’s instant death for most living things—and it ignores six levels of Heavy Armor.

Power Quality: Attacks

  • +3 Attacks levels (+3), Engulf (+2), If/Then (must smack hand and fist together) (–1), Obvious (–1), Penetration (+6), Reduced Capacities (–1). Capacity: Range (128 yards).

Total Power Cost: 10 per die (110 points).

Gear

  • Tactical vest
  • M4 carbine (5d attack)
  • 9 mm pistol (4d attack)

Henry Wilson

A talented paramedic who got fired from his civilian job when a serious painkiller habit came to light.

Description

Smart. Really smart. Crazy smart. Has medical skills as good as a veteran doctor. Could have been great, with a few different choices in life—and knows it. Age 32.

Archetype: Mutant

Source: Genetic
Permission: Power Theme
Cost: 5 points

Stats

Body 2, Coordination 2, Sense 6 (1 normally + 5 from mutant power)
Mind 5, Charm 3, Command 2

Secondary Stats

Base Will 11
Willpower 11

Motivations

Loyalty: People Who Need My Help (4)
Passion: Whatever Feels Good At the Moment (6)

Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 1d, Endurance 2d

Coordination Skills: Driving 2d, Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 1d, Stealth 2d

Sense Skills: Empathy 1d, Perception 1d, Scrutiny 1d

Mind Skills: First Aid 4d (9d), Knowledge (Forgery) 2d (7d), Medicine 2d (7d), Streetwise 2d (7d), Survival 1d (6d)

Charm Skills: Lie 4d, Persuasion 4d

Command Skills: Stability 4d

Disadvantage

Addictive personality. If you find yourself getting hooked on something to the detriment of yourself or those around you, it’s worth 1 bonus XP once per game session.

Powers

HYPERSTAT: SENSE (+5D)

Before your power manifested, you barely noticed what was going on around you. Now you notice things that normal people don’t. You can use each sense to compensate for the others, and you can see things that move too quickly for the normal human eye. That means you can see bullets coming and try to dodge them—or better yet, block them with your main power, your force fields.

If your Willpower ever drops to zero, you lose three of your bonus Sense dice (from +5d to +2d) and you’re unable to see bullets soon enough to block them.

Total Power Cost: 4 per die (20 points).

BAD-ASS FORCE FIELDS (10D)

You can create protective shields to block attacks that are coming at you or at anything you can see—even things that are miles away, if you can see them clearly enough.

In game terms, you use your power as a Defense roll. If you get a set of matching dice, each die in your set cancels out a die in an attack’s set. If that means the attack roll has no more matching dice, it fails to hit. That means one defense roll by you can often stop two or more different attacks.

And because you have so many dice in your power, you’re really good at multiple actions, which lets you use more than one rolled set at a time to block lots of attacks.

Power Quality: Defends

  • Interference +3, Power Capacity (Range) +2. Capacity: Range (3 miles).

Power Cost: 7 per die (70 points).

Gear

  • Tactical vest
  • 9 mm pistol (3d)
  • Medical kit

Paul Rodriguez

Ex-Army Ranger who retired on disability after getting badly hurt. He’s better now, but between lengthy rehab and lousy money sense he racked up staggering debts as a civilian.

Description

Big, muscular, athletic and quick. Scary and tough. Age 27.

Stats

Body 4, Coordination 3, Sense 2
Mind 2, Charm 2, Command 3

Secondary Stats

Base Will 7
Willpower 7

Motivations

Loyalty: Your Brothers in Arms (4)
Passion: The Clean Kill (3)

Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 2d, Brawling 3d, Block 4d, Endurance 2d, Melee Weapon (Knife) 4d

Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d, Ranged Weapon (Machine Gun) 3d, Stealth 3d

Sense Skills: Perception 2d, Scrutiny 2d

Mind Skills: First Aid 1d, Language (Pashto) 1d, Navigation 2d, Tactics 2d

Charm Skills: None

Command Skills: Interrogation 1d, Intimidation 3d, Stability 3d

Archetype: Mutant

Source: Genetic
Permission: Power Theme
Intrinsic: Allergy (rare, incapacitating—choose one)
Cost: 4 points

Powers

CONTROL _______________ (8D)

You have incredible psychic control over some insubstantial element. It can be something like fire, smoke, light, air; anything that doesn’t have a substantial mass. Pick the element and write it in. You can control the element at a distance of a little over 1,000 yards.

You can use this power in three ways.

First, you can use it to attack, doing Width in Shock and Killing damage (about equal to a gunshot). What shape this takes depends on the element.

Second, you can use it to defend, rolling your dice to block an attack against you (but only against you).

Third, you can control the element to do other miraculous things. You can control all the element within a 20-yard radius.

Your power does not allow you to create the element. It must already be present for you to control it.

Power Quality: Attacks

  • Capacity: Range (1,280 yards).

Power Quality: Defends

  • Capacity: Self.

Power Quality: Useful (Control Element)

  • Radius (+4). Capacity: Range (1,280 yards).

Total Cost: 10 per die (80 points).

Gear

  • Tactical vest
  • M4 carbine (5d attack)
  • 9 mm pistol (5d attack)
  • Combat knife (8d attack)

Joe Lister

A retired Special Forces master sergeant. The old man of the group. He’s been out of the military game for a couple of years. Before retirement he looked forward to peace and quiet, but he got bored to tears when he found it.

Description

Average size, in pretty good shape. Wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. Eyes get flinty and intense when he’s focusing on the job. Age 40.

Stats

Body 3, Coordination 3, Sense 3
Mind 3 , Charm 2, Command 4

Secondary Stats

Base Will 7
Willpower 7 

Motivations

Loyalty: Those You’ve Convinced to Be Allies (3)
Passion: Stick With the Mission (4)

Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 1d, Brawling 4d, Endurance 1d, Melee Weapon (Knife) 3d 

Coordination Skills: Stealth 3d, Ranged Weapon (Rifle) 2d 

Sense Skills: Empathy 1d, Perception 1d, Scrutiny 1d 

Mind Skills: First Aid 1d, Language (Arabic) 2d, Language (Dari) 2d, Language (Hindi) 1d, Language (Pashto) 2d, Language (Urdu) 1d, Navigation 2d, Survival 2d, Tactics 2d 

Charm Skills: Lie 2d, Persuasion 2d 

Command Skills: Interrogation 2d, Intimidation 2d, Leadership 2d, Stability 2d  

Archetype: Mutant

Source: Genetic
Permission: Power Theme
Cost: 5 points 

Powers

 TELEPORTATION (1D + 1WD)

As long as you think nobody is watching, you can teleport yourself—and you can teleport other things that you can see, without touching them, within about 20 yards. When you use the power, roll one die and set a separate die (the Wiggle Die) to any value you want, after rolling the first one.

You can use this power to try to avoid harm, rolling your dice as a Defense roll. If you succeed, each die in your rolled set reduces the Width of an attack against you that has the same or lower Width and Height. Avoiding harm is so instinctive that it doesn’t matter whether or not people are watching. 

You can also use this power to kill people—by teleporting, say, somebody’s head far away from his body.  This does Width + 2 in Shock and Killing damage, and it ignores most armor. Often that means a victim’s entire limb simply evaporates. That forces the victim, witnesses, and you to make Stability rolls to avoid completely freaking out. As with your regular use of the power, you can only do this if you think nobody is watching you.

Power Quality: Attacks 

  • +2 Attacks Levels (+2), Disintigration (+2), If/Then (not when observed) (–1), Non-Physical (resisted by natural hardened armor, or powers of insubstantiality or teleportation) (+2), Traumatic (+1). Capacity: Range (20 yards).

Power Quality: Defends 

Power Quality: Useful

  • Booster +1, If/Then (not when observed) –1, Power Capacities (Mass and Range) +4. Capacities: Mass (50 or 100 lbs), Range (teleport things far away, 10 or 20 yards), Range (the distance things can be teleported, 10 or 20 yards).

Total Cost: 16 points per die (64 points) 

Teleportation Range, Distance and Mass

At 10 meters from whatever you’re teleporting, you can teleport a 50 kg object up to 10 meters or a 25 kg object up to 20 meters.

At 20 meters from your target, you can teleport a 25 kg object up to 10 meters.

Here’s the big “however”: You can choose one of these capacities and multiply it by 10. So you can get the effects of 10 meters range at 100 meters; or you can teleport an object that’s 500 kg instead of 50 kg; or teleport it 100 meters instead of 10; and so on. 

Gear

  • Tactical vest
  • M4 carbine (5d attack)
  • 9 mm pistol (4d attack)
  • Combat knife (6d attack)

Timothy Nicks

Some romantic entanglements make your life complicated. Others make your life prone to suddenly ending. 

That’s the kind you got into back home. First you developed a crush on a black-haired beauty in a Rutgers grad program. Then you invoked Eros, the Archon of Desire, to give a little nudge when she wouldn’t give you the time of day. Then when the crush faded and you dumped her, it turned out she was a cousin of the Piccione family.

Yes, THAT Piccione family. The Piccione crime family. The crime family of superpowered mutants. 

There’s nothing like having an honest-to-God mobster trying to kill you, unless it’s an honest-to-God mobster who can breathe fire. And that’s the least weird one of the bunch.

Luckily, thanks to your membership in ROSCRO—the Rational Occult Studies and Research Organization, a prestigious national think-tank of registered sorcerers—you knew some people who knew some people, and you got a job with a private security company that does high-risk contracts in third-world war zones in conjunction with the U.S. military. And here you are. A fake name and a ridiculously dangerous job nowhere near the tri-state area or the halls of academia. 

And over here, people still want to kill you. But none of them have superpowers. So far.

Description

Blond hair, blue eyes, trim and healthy, nice tan, nice teeth, looks equally good when dressed to the nines or when crumpled and dusty. Way smarter than people think. Age 26.

Stats

Body 2, Coordination 2, Sense 2
Mind 4, Charm 4, Command 2

Skills

Body Skills: Endurance 3d (5d) 

Coordination Skills: Dodge 2d (4d), Driving 2d (4d) 

Sense Skills: Empathy 2d (4d), Perception 2d (4d) 

Mind Skills: Knowledge (computers) 1d (5d), Knowledge (cooking) 1d (5d), Research 4d (8d), Spellcraft 4d (8d), Spiritwise 2d (6d) 

Charm Skills: Lie 3d (7d), Invocation 4d (8d), Performance (dance) 1d (5d), Persuasion 5d (9d) 

Command Skills: Leadership 2d (4d), Stability 2d (4d) 

Secondary Stats

Base Will 6
Willpower 6 

Motivations

Loyalty: Anybody Who Likes or Admires Me (3).
Passion: The Opposite Sex (3). 

Archetype: None

As a sorcerer, you can spend Willpower but have no powers.

Spells

Invocation is the art of summoning archons. Archons are immaterial spirits that embody some principle or ideal and can work magical effects in the world in support of that principle or drive. Once you have mastered the ritual to summon an archon, you must persuade it to do as you wish, typically by agreeing to perform some service for the archon in return. You can use helper spells to make yourself more persuasive. Defensive spells resist or drive out hostile spirits. These spells are described in Grim War.

DEFENSIVE SPELLS:

  • Abjuration of Form (17)
  • Abjuring Demarcation (3)
  • Purification by the Burning Ring (3)

HELPER SPELLS:

  • Adoration of the Translunar (2)

SUMMONING SPELLS:

  • Fortune Smiles (3)
  • Invoke Erotic Archon (5)
  • Plea for Succor (8)
  • Rite of the Black Feather (8)

OTHER SPELLS:

  • Palace of the Flesh (24)
  • Craft Eyes of the Otherworld (17) 

Gear

  • Tactical vest
  • 9 mm pistol (3d attack)
  • Seamless yellow robe
  • Full-size, medieval-style, metal shield with a mirrored chrome front
  • White candles
  • Crow feathers
  • Laptop loaded with spells and research material

Ellen Holmes

As soon as you learned the basics of daemonology, you knew you wanted to be the greatest conjurer in the world. 

It had to be daemonology; invoking archons is for the smarmy, charming sorts, the golden boys and girls of the wizard set. With daemons, it’s simpler. You just need to drive them to do your bidding.

You know you’re not the most ingenius when it comes to research and spellcraft, but that’s OK. You have inner drive born of years of iconoclasty, a lifetime of spite from fitting in nowhere but in your books and scrolls. 

What you don’t have enough of is money. That’s where this job comes in. This one-year contract brings in better pay than a decade as some second-rate wizard’s understudy. That money will make all the difference. Even now, when it comes to conjuration there aren’t many in your league. That’s a good start.

Description

Small, mousy, clumsy, quiet, completely out of place among gung-ho former soldiers—but possessed of surprising depths of durability and mental hardness. Age 24. 

Stats

Body 1, Coordination 1, Sense 2
Mind 3, Charm 2, Command 4

Secondary Stats

Base Will 6
Willpower 6 

Motivations

Loyalty: The Art of Sorcery (3)
Passion: Using Sorcery to Protect Friends and Loved Ones (3)

Skills

Body Skills: Endurance 3 (4d)

Coordination Skills: None

Sense Skills: Perception 1 (3d)

Mind Skills: Language (Arabic) 1 (4d), Language (French) 1 (4d), Language (Greek) 1 (4d), Language (Latin) 1 (4d), Language (Pashto) 2 (5d), Language (Russian) 1 (4d), Research 1 (4d), Spellcraft 3 (6d), Spiritwise 2 (5d), Streetwise 1 (4d)

Charm Skills: Lie 2 (4d)

Command Skills: Conjure 4 (8d), Intimidation 1 (5d), Stability 4 (8d)  

Disadvantage

Needs glasses or contact lenses. Without them, all sight-related Sense rolls suffer one gobble die. Gain 1 XP once per game session if this happens. 

Archetype: None

As a sorcerer, you can spend Willpower but have no powers. 

Spells

Conjuration is the art of summoning daemons. A daemon is an immaterial spirit that embodies opposition to some principle or ideal and can work magical effects in the world to oppose it. After summoning a daemon you must force it to serve you by spiritually attacking it until it submits. You can use helper spells to attack a spirit or extend its servitude. Defensive spells resist or drive out hostile spirits. These spells are described in Grim War.

DEFENSIVE SPELLS:

  • Abjuration of Form (17)
  • Astral Escutcheon (8)
  • Expulsion of Device (13)

HELPER SPELLS:

  • Baal’s Agonizing Blade (5)
  • Chastisement (7)
  • The Ifrit’s Baffling Labyrinth (24)

SUMMONING SPELLS:

  • Conjure Astral Alarm (5) (awareness of danger)
  • Demand of Succor (10) (healing)
  • Sorrow’s Glass (5) (misery)
  • Summon the Slayer of Secrets (9) (mind reading)
  • Penetrate the Abyssal Wall (20) (general daemon call) 

OTHER SPELLS:

  • Unveiling (12)

Spell Variant: The Ifrit’s Baffling Labyrinth

As “The Ifrit’s Labyrinth,” but has duration based on the Height of the roll.

Height 1: Lasts Height minutes
Height 2: Lasts Width hours
Height 3: Lasts Height hours
Height 4: Lasts Width days
Height 5: Lasts Height days
Height 6: Lasts Width weeks
Height 7: Lasts Height weeks
Height 8: Lasts Width months
Height 9: Lasts Height months
Height 10: Lasts Width years

Gear

  • Tactical vest
  • Barely-touched 9 mm pistol (1d attack)
  • Creepy old books and scrolls in many languages
  • Large trunk full of weird stuff:
    • Chunk of elm wood (can’t be easily replaced; the Himalayan elm is rare and legally protected in Afghanistan)
    • Sharpened bronze axe head
    • Eight mouse traps
    • Long sword with a handle wrapped in red silk and a golden tassel
    • Assorted candles in many colors
    • Chalk
    • Scary-looking, very sharp dagger
    • Ten-foot square of yellow cloth
    • Clumsily hand-embroidered black scarf with red cabalistic symbols (you made it yourself)

“Eschaton, Inc.” won’t be finished right away, but you’re welcome to use these characters. Or get Grim War in PDF, or in print with a free PDF download, to see what it’s all about.

Leave a Reply