{"id":2228,"date":"2013-12-02T11:48:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T18:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2013-12-02T12:18:22","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T19:18:22","slug":"general-null-of-the-villainous-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/2013\/12\/general-null-of-the-villainous-nine\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Angels: General Null of the Villainous Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Better-Angels-cover-v4-front-612px\"<\/a>Written by Greg Stolze and illustrated by Kurt Komoda, \u00a9 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

Tito Marquez never set out to be a hero, villain or anything of the sort.\u00a0 He\u2019s shy.\u00a0 Nerves plagued the first half of his life, right up to the point that a girl he kinda liked mentioned that she was taking aikido and he signed up.\u00a0 While he didn\u2019t stick with the martial art (and she moved away to Fort Meade), he did get into meditation and found that it really helped with his nerves, tics and phobias.\u00a0 He eschewed the world of maya<\/i>, became a full-time disciple of Zen (to the dismay of his parents, who\u2019d been subtly encouraging him to go into endocrinology), studied in Japan for five years, moved back to the U.S. and discovered it was crawling with demons.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t that his meditation had given him any paranormal ability to perceive demons.\u00a0 It was simply that his clear thoughts and personal tranquility let him think about the behavior he observed in the caped forces on both sides of the law and their particular hysterias.\u00a0 They were not acting like people\u2026 not even like crazy, unhappy people.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until he stumbled across an amulet (in the form of a corrupt demonic book of sutras) and entered into dialogue with his own demon that he really got what was happening.\u00a0 This nonverbal entity (referred to in the sutras by the title \u201cAnnihilating One\u201d) seems to approve of his attempts to place demons in restrained hosts, and has not encouraged him to do anything violent, gross or overtly satanic.\u00a0 The impression he gets is that it seeks to transcend the categories of \u2018evil\u2019 and \u2018good\u2019 that hobble all the angels and all the other<\/i> demons he\u2019s encountered.\u00a0 He kind of thinks it wants to destroy the world of matter altogether.\u00a0 Seeing as how some Buddhist texts represent the sensible realm as the source of all pain and conflict, Tito isn\u2019t 100% opposed to the notion.\u00a0 But it\u2019s early days yet.\u00a0 First step is to do something about all those angels and demons.<\/p>\n

\"General<\/a>CUNNING<\/strong> 3, PATIENT<\/strong> 4
\nGreed<\/em> 1, Generosity<\/em> 1
\nEspionage<\/em> 3, Knowledge<\/em> 3<\/p>\n

SLY<\/strong> 3, OPEN<\/strong> 2
\nCruelty<\/em> 3, Courage<\/em> 1
\nCowardice<\/em> 1, Endurance<\/em> 3<\/p>\n

DEVIOUS<\/strong> 4, INSIGHTFUL<\/strong> 3
\nCorruption<\/em> 4, Nurture<\/em> 2
\nDeceit<\/em> 4, Honesty<\/em> 2<\/p>\n

POWERS<\/strong>: Animal Form, Telekinesis<\/p>\n

ASPECTS<\/strong>: Cloven Hooves, Invisible<\/p>\n

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

The Nullzooka<\/h2>\n

The signature weapon of General Null has taken years of effort to perfect, but it\u2019s definitely worth it. A seven-foot long tube that barfs flame and darkness from the twisted face at its front (while ejecting exhaust from the twisted face at its back\u2014both faces resembling Tibetan demons from Buddhist statuary), the Nullzooka breaks glass, shreds drywall, turns furniture into matchwood and generally makes a mess on about the scale of a hand grenade.\u00a0 That\u2019s a Minor Environmental Change and it cost Tito a point of Generosity<\/em>.\u00a0 That\u2019s not such a big deal.<\/p>\n

The big deal is what it does to people who are on its receiving end.\u00a0 The Nullzooka targets Endurance<\/em>, based on the Width of the hit.\u00a0 That cost Tito a point of Knowledge<\/em>.\u00a0 Moreover, it has +5 Advantage, which cost him five more<\/i> points of Knowledge<\/em>.\u00a0 (This was not something he just knocked together in the garage over the course of a couple all-nighters, obviously.)<\/p>\n

Now, a device that cost six points of Knowledge<\/em> requires a lot of Flaws, and the Nullzooka has them.\u00a0 It\u2019s Blatant (much like a mundane bazooka) and Bulky.\u00a0 Moreover, it has a Cooldown flaw, so it can be fired only every other round.\u00a0Finally, building it took two Rare Components (the toenail parings of a sitting U.S. president and a stone from the bottom of the Marianas Trench, if you\u2019re wondering).\u00a0But can you really put a price on a weapon that knocks over subcompact cars and carves through a target\u2019s physical ability to resist?<\/p>\n

Activation:<\/strong> SLY\u00a0<\/b>Cruelty<\/i><\/p>\n

Effects:<\/strong><\/p>\n