Early Access
Clear out, or I’ll smash you into paste. Red, screaming, bone-protruding paste. This is your only warning.
The supervillain called Anathema is big, bright red, and stronger than anyone on this or any other planet (or so he claims). Superheroes who go head to head with him learn that he can withstand almost any hit and always gives back twice as hard as he receives. He can bring down buildings with a punch and throw semitrucks across state lines.
Before he was Anathema, he was Sameer Stokes, a bitter and spiteful coder working for a large software company. Having failed in relationships, promotions, and retaining friends, Sameer retreated online and learned that he had power when he bullied people. He delighted in causing emotional distress in others in forums and social media. In effect, he was a troll. When the metamorphosis happened, he was turned into a troll for real. (Sameer doesn’t recall the metamorphosis or the days before and immediately after his change, despite using therapy and drugs in an attempt to recover those memories.)
Assume that Anathema has three power shifts in strength and two in resilience. These shifts are already figured into his modifications and other stats.
Motive: Wealth, live on the edge
Environment: Anywhere vast wealth can be stolen
Health: 70
Damage Inflicted: Two major wounds
Movement: Short; a few miles (5 km) per leap
Modifications: Dodge as level 5 due to size; Might defense as level 9; strength tasks as level 10
Combat: Anathema hits foes with bone-shocking force. He can throw cars and large objects at targets within long range, dealing damage to all creatures within immediate range of his target.
Anathema has a healing factor that makes it hard to hurt him in any meaningful sense. He regains 10 health per round. In any round in which he regains health, his attacks deal an additional moderate wound, and he seems to visibly swell with muscle.
Interaction: When Anathema is riled up during a fight, it’s difficult to reason with him. However, he is willing to negotiate if someone offers him wealth or convinces him they have valuable secrets for breaking mental blocks. Anathema doesn’t know how he became the way he is, and he wants to recover his missing memories.
Use: Anathema is fighting a group of newbie superheroes who haven’t figured out that engaging the red mountain will likely cause more deaths than leaving him alone. (The first rule of fighting Anathema is to lead or move him somewhere with a low population density.)
Loot: Anathema doesn’t normally carry wealth or other valuables. In his lair, he typically has three to five expensive items, 1d6 manifest cyphers, and possibly an artifact.
GM Intrusion: Anathema’s attack sends the character flying a long distance and potentially into dangerous terrain or a hard structure, inflicting an additional moderate wound.
Against mid-rank superheroes, increase his health to 100 and his regeneration to 20. Against high-rank superheroes, increase his health to 120, increase his regeneration to 30, and ease his attacks by two steps.