{"id":2168,"date":"2013-11-13T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/?p=2168"},"modified":"2013-11-11T10:15:46","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:15:46","slug":"better-angels-bloodskull-and-captain-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/2013\/11\/better-angels-bloodskull-and-captain-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Angels — Bloodskull and Captain Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Greg Stolze and illustrated by Kurt Komoda, \u00a9 2013 respectively.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bloodskull and Captain Stars are featured in the Better Angels<\/i><\/a> short story, \u201cSoul-Catcher In the Rye.\u201d<\/a> Here they are in game terms. This write-up has spoilers for the story, so read the story first.<\/p>\n

Bloodskull the Soul-Catcher<\/h2>\n

\u2018Bloodskull\u2019 is retired.\u00a0 A notorious supervillain known for killing Rusty Stoebel, grievously injuring over a dozen people during a riverboat robbery, and claiming to have driven a half-dozen teens to suicide, he vanished from the scene two years ago. He was a horrid creature, looking like a monster sculpted from mucus, and known for spitting burning, flaming skulls at people.<\/p>\n

He disappeared just about the time a burning giant (skinny and young, but giant) called \u201cMister Vigil\u201d started raising hell among the criminal underworld, and given this new crime-fighter\u2019s refusal to confirm or deny the rumor that he killed Bloodskull, most people have guessed that he did it.\u00a0 Nobody suspects that they\u2019re the same person.<\/p>\n

Edgar Brinks is a surly teenage towhead with a bad attitude and a learning disability that didn\u2019t get diagnosed until he was 15.\u00a0 By that time he was already shoplifting, and one of the things he stole was a pen-knife at a flea market, a pen-knife with a horned devil-head carved into its wooden handle.<\/p>\n

\"better-angels-bloodskull\"<\/p>\n

That stolen pocketknife was the amulet of Malagdun the Iniquitous, self-described as an Archduke of Hell. He was the perfect tool for a bitter, rebellious loser.\u00a0 Or, perhaps vice versa.<\/p>\n

Ed tried to quit Malagdun, as described in the story \u201cSoul Catcher in the Rye.\u201d\u00a0 In the end, he couldn\u2019t, but he could heap the blame for a series of suicides on his \u2018Bloodskull\u2019 persona before reinventing himself as a \u2018hero.\u2019\u00a0 His demon, Malagdun, seems to have a wry affection for his young host.\u00a0 But that could well be a ploy to put Edgar off guard.<\/p>\n

CUNNING<\/strong> 1, PATIENT<\/strong> 1
\nGreed<\/em> 2, Generosity<\/em> 1
\nEspionage<\/em> 2, Knowledge<\/em> 1<\/p>\n

SLY<\/strong> 3, OPEN<\/strong> 3
\nCruelty<\/em> 3, Courage<\/em> 1
\nCowardice<\/em> 3, Endurance<\/em> 1<\/p>\n

DEVIOUS<\/strong> 3, INSIGHTFUL<\/strong> 1
\nCorruption<\/em> 2, Nurture<\/em> 2
\nDeceit<\/em> 3, Honesty<\/em> 0<\/p>\n

POWERS<\/strong>: Dominator Strike (Hot), Armor<\/p>\n

ASPECTS<\/strong>: Giant, Flame-Wreathed<\/p>\n

PRIMARY SINFUL STRATEGY<\/strong>: Sly<\/p>\n

Captain Stars<\/h2>\n

Ryan Wouk had everything handed to him on a silver platter and it always made him nervous and uneasy.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t like<\/i> having it better than everyone else.\u00a0 He felt like it was only a matter of time before his fortunes reversed.\u00a0 This may have been due to his Catholic upbringing and the influence of a terribly strict spinster aunt who babysat him a lot when he was a kid.<\/p>\n

She left him her pendant of black drusy stone, which seemed like an odd choice until he held it and felt a second consciousness flow into his body.\u00a0 Earnest, hard-working A+ student Ryan had become a host to an angelic consciousness. He became Captain Stars, a walking pitch-black shape with pinpoints of brilliant light shining from within. He became a superhero.<\/p>\n

It made him miserable.<\/p>\n

He did not enjoy the powers.\u00a0 He felt obligated to rush around putting out fires and rescuing sinking boaters and intervening in domestic disputes.\u00a0 Any time he found out about a injury or fatality that happened when he was asleep or in school, he felt a terrible pang of guilt, that he could have saved that person if he\u2019d only been a little less selfish.<\/p>\n

If only he\u2019d been more Captain Stars and less Ryan Wouk.<\/p>\n

\"Better-Angels-Captain-Stars\"<\/a>The worst of it was fighting with Bloodskull who, while vicious and antisocial, had a freedom that Ryan was appalled to find himself envying<\/i>.\u00a0 They fought a lot, and then Bloodskull brought in Multi-Beast from Portland, a woman who could change into animal forms (among other powers).\u00a0 Where Bloodskull had teased and taunted him, Multi-Beast just took hostages and started killing them until he turned up and surrendered.\u00a0 It was Bloodskull<\/i> who told her \u201cHey, that\u2019s enough<\/i>!\u201d and, when she didn\u2019t stop what she was doing, pulled her away long enough for Captain Stars to escape.<\/p>\n

Ryan killed himself not long after that.\u00a0 The drusy pendant is buried with him.<\/p>\n

CUNNING<\/strong> 0 (+MD*), PATIENT<\/strong> 2 (+MD*)
\nGreed<\/em> 1, Generosity<\/em> 2
\nEspionage<\/em> 1, Knowledge<\/em> 2<\/p>\n

SLY<\/strong> 1 (+MD*), OPEN<\/strong> 3 (+MD*)
\nCruelty<\/em> 0, Courage<\/em> 4
\nCowardice<\/em> 1, Endurance<\/em> 2<\/p>\n

DEVIOUS<\/strong> 0 (+3 weapon bonus**), INSIGHTFUL<\/strong> 1 (+MD*)
\nCorruption<\/em> 0, Nurture<\/em> 2
\nDeceit<\/em> 3, Honesty<\/em> 2<\/p>\n

POWERS<\/strong>: Meek Endurance, Righteous Arm<\/p>\n

ASPECTS<\/strong>: Wings, Halo<\/p>\n

* These bonus Master Dice come into play only for mundane tasks in keeping with the angelic Code of Conduct, when the angel is invoked.<\/p>\n

** This bonus applies at all times, but can become degraded if the Code of Conduct has been violated while the angel is perceptive.<\/p>\n

\"Better<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Greg Stolze and illustrated by Kurt Komoda, \u00a9 2013 respectively. Bloodskull and Captain Stars are featured in the Better Angels<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[142,11,220],"class_list":["post-2168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-better-angels","tag-characters","tag-greg-stolze","tag-kurt-komoda"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/better-angels-bloodskull-featured.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1wrNI-yY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2168"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2175,"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168\/revisions\/2175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}