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The Stranger Power Level: 12 (180/183PP) Trade-Offs: None Unspent Power Points: 3 In Brief: An inhuman creature bonded to a human shell. A protector of the dreamscape. Alternate Identity Identity: Seth Machan (Secret) Birthplace: The Dreamspace/Atlantis Occupation: Criminal Attorney, volunteer defense attorney Affiliations: Delphic Industries, Project Freedom, Public Defender's Office Family: None, and innumerable. Description Age: ~16,000 years old (Incarnated during the Pleistocene) Apparent Age: Mid-thirties Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian by default Height: 5’ 8” Weight: 140 lbs Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Seth Machan is not a man who stands out in a crowd. He’s of average height and skinny, with unlined skin and dark hair that grows straight and smooth and thick to the nape of his neck. He favors grey Oxford shirts, dark suits, and shiny black brogues. He’s almost never seen in anything more casual. He often wears a silver lapel pin depicting what looks like a leaf or frond. When on patrol, the Stranger does not wear a cape or bright colors. He still wears a black shirt, a black sportcoat, and black slacks. His feet are bare, though, and his hair is wild and tangled. His hair isn’t just black anymore either; it almost looks absent, like it absorbs all light that touches it. His skin becomes pale as china, and his face becomes a smooth expanse of flesh from his brow to his chin with mere slits for his black-on-black eyes. The frond-symbol moves to his forehead and has the same not-quite-there coloration as his hair. In the dream realm, the Stranger looks even less human. Superficially he still appears to be a man in pale skin with messy hair and dark clothes, but his face is a stylized noh mask and he rarely takes his hands out of his pockets. Instead, his jacket bulges like there are great, tunneling creature moving underneath it, and either the hems of his slacks cover his feet or his feet meld into the dream terrain. Power Descriptions: The Stranger’s powers come from his otherworldly lineage. His body is not something that grew around him; it’s a thing he constructed. As such he has incredible control over his biological processes, rendering him immune to virtually all the natural toxins that plague humans. In addition he can tap into his eldritch nature to empower himself, either to supercharge his physical body or attack his enemies’ minds in different ways. If he’s injured , he can reach out and absorb the power within a particular person or object to heal himself. Finally, as a creature native to the mindscape, he can enter the minds of sleeping creatures and travel via dreams to any other dreaming creature in this universe. In the realm of dreams, he is much more powerful and much stranger. He can reshape the dreamscape to his will and uses that to create walls and other structures to defend himself or tie up enemies, or to create attacks to overwhelm his enemies. He can even attack the very nature of the dream dimension itself to remove enemies History: The history of the creature most often known as the Stranger goes back to ancient Atlantis. A mage, his name forgotten to all, became aware of the strange beings that prowled on the edges of the dream realms. He enticed one in and captured it, forcing the creature to manifest physically. At first the creature was a formless mass, but as it spent more time around humans the spirit took on a more human form. Eventually the mage created a body for it, for the dream entity to move around the city and see its wonders. The creature survived the mage and was inherited by his family, but it was never regarded as anything but a monster to be studied and contained. The spirit’s body did not age or die though, and it was around to see the city sink. The spirit escaped to Mesopotamia, settling among the proto-Sumerians in the region and tried to live as just a man. However, there was a suffering that he couldn’t ignore. The dreams and minds of Atlanteans and mages were protected, but out in the wilds there were monsters and demons and worse to prey on people. The spirit had the knowledge of thousands of years of observing the greatest mages in history, and his own nature allowed him to travel to the dreamworld and do battle directly with the predators there. Time passed, and the creature traveled the world. Every place that he found evil preying on innocents he fought against it, often triumphing, sometimes dying, always returning. He’s spent tens of thousands of years this way, observing humanity’s slow climb up it its current state. He settled in Freedom City a few decades ago and eventually found a job with the Public Defender's Office, helping those who had recently gone through a traumatic life change. He remains a defender of the dreamscape, though, a terror to nightmares and an eerie defender of the waking world. Personality & Motivation: Seth appears rather distant to most people, even cold. Even when he claims to have strong feelings on a subject, he’ll often explain himself in a detached, logical fashion. This can be unsettling when he acts calm and collected in a stressful situation, even carrying on casual conversation in the middle of dangerous fights. The truth is that Seth views humanity as a fascinating mystery, full of questions and inconsistencies. He’s spent tens of thousands of years in and among them, and yet every day there is something that surprises him. He will protect humanity at least until he can unravel their mysteries. Powers & Tactics: There’s a marked difference between how the Stranger fights in the physical world and how he fights in the dreamworld. In the physical world he’s more or less a straight-up brawler, mixing bone-shattering blows with the occasional psychic dagger. If he’s too injured he can reach out and eat the energies that sustain a certain thing, dissolving it to dust and repairing himself. As a last resort he can drop the illusion of normality that covers him and subject everyone who can see him to his true, unnatural, mind-shattering shape. In the dreamworld fighting the Stranger is like fighting the land itself. He can use the mutable landscape to cause mountains to crash onto an opponent, freeze them solid one moment and boil them alive the next. He’s much less restrained in these fights, since all the damage is metaphorical; it takes a concerted effort to kill someone in the dreamscape, allowing him to fight without the usual consideration. Complications Not Meant to Be Seth is a creature not of this dimension, and his very nature is against the rules of this dimension. Observant people can figure out this wrongness from how the environment reacts to him. Staring into the Abyss Seth’s magical and psychic nature is a stain on the world. Anyone observing him with Magic Awareness or Mental Awareness will immediately know that he is something weird and dangerous. Constant Observer Seth is fascinated with the actions of humanity and its reasons for such. In the heat of the moment he may stop acting to simply observe, or even to interrogate someone engaged in delicate work. Never Forget In his very first incarnation Seth was essentially a slave of an Atlantean wizard. While that family is long dead, he still doesn’t trust any Atlantean or anyone of Atlantean descent (including Ulti-men and the inhabitants of Ultima Thule). Abilities: 0 + 4 + 0 + 2 + 10 + 6 = 22PP Strength: 30/10 (+10/+0) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 10 (+0) Intelligence: 12 (+1) Wisdom: 20 (+5) Charisma: 16 (+3) Combat: 12 + 12 = 24PP Initiative: +2 Attack: +6 Melee, +6 Ranged, +10 Pseudonatural Dreams Grapple: +6/+16 Defense: +10 (+6 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed Knockback: -10/-5 Saving Throws: 8 + 4 + 5 = 17PP Toughness: +10 (+0 Con, +10 Protection, 10 Impervious) Fortitude: +8 (+0 Con, +8) Reflex: +6 (+2 Dex, +4) Will: +10 (+5 Wis, +5) Skills: 100R = 25PP Diplomacy 7 (+10) Intimidate 17 (+20)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 14 (+15)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Behavioral Sciences) 9 (+10) Knowledge (Civics) 14 (+15)Skill Mastery Knowledge (Current Events) 9 (+10) Knowledge (History) 9 (+10) Medicine 5 (+10) Notice 10 (+15) Sense Motive 6 (+11)Skill Mastery Feats: 8PP Dodge Focus 4 Fearless Ritualist Skill Mastery (Intimidate, Knowledge [Arcane Lore, Civics], Sense Motive) Startle Powers: 4 + 6 + 1 + 28 + 37 + 7 + 1 = 84PP All powers have the pseudonatural and magic descriptors Flight 2 (25 MPH) (Forsake the Earth) [4PP] Morph 2 (Any humanoid, +10 Disguise, Feats: Quick Change 2) (Shape this Shell) [6PP] Morph 0 (+0 Disguise, Feat: Metamorph) (Dream Self) [1PP] Pseudonatural Biology Container [28PP] Immunity 30 (Fortitude, Feat: Trance, Flaw: Half Effect) (Constructed Body) [16PP] Protection 10 [10PP] Immunity 2 (Ageing, Sleep) [2PP] Pseudonatural Dreams Array 15 (30PP, Feats: Accurate 2, Alternate Power 5) [37PP] BE: Enhanced Strength 20 (Extra: Linked [+0] [Impervious]) + Impervious Protection 10 (Extra: Linked [+0] [Enhanced Strength]) (Inhuman Might) [30/30PP] AP: Stun 10 (Extras: Range/Ranged) (Psychic) (You Sleep) [30/30PP] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Range/Ranged, Alternate Save [Will]) (Psychic) (Visit Your Nightmares) [30/30PP] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Range/Ranged, Vampiric) (I Hunger!) [30/30PP] AP: Mind Reading 10 (Extras: Linked [+0] [Drain Will]) + Drain Will 10 (Extra: Range/Perception, Flaw: Limited [Sleeping Targets Only]) (Dream Invasion) [30/30PP] AP: Dreamwalking [13/30PP] Super-Movement 1 (Dimensional 1 [Dream dimension]) [1PP] Teleport 20 (Anywhere in the universe, Feats: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Flaws: Limited [Long-Range Only], Medium [Dreams]) [12PP] Super Senses 5 (Mental sense, +Accurate, +Acute, +Radius, +Ranged, Extended [100 ft], Feat: Uncanny Dodge) (Spatial Awareness) [7PP] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection, 1 week) [1PP] Drawbacks: (-0) = -0PP DC Block Powers: 4 + 7 + 28 + 37 + 7 + 1 = 84PP All powers have the pseudonatural and magic descriptors Comprehend 2 (Understand all Language, Speak any One Language) (Dream Speech) [4PP] Morph 2 (Any humanoid, +10 Disguise, Feats: Metamorph, Quick Change 2) (Dream Self) [7PP] Pseudonatural Biology Container [28PP] Immunity 30 (Fortitude, Feat: Trance, Flaw: Limited [Half Effect]) (Constructed Body) [16PP] Protection 10 [10PP] Immunity 2 (Ageing, Sleep) [2PP] Dreamcrafting Array 15 (30PP, Feats: Accurate 2, Alternate Power 5) [37PP] BE: Create Object 10 (Extra: Moveable) (Modeling the Dreamscape) [30/30PP] AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Autofire, Range/Ranged) (Dream Barrage) [30/30PP] AP: ESP 10 (200 000 miles; All senses, Flaw: Feedback) (Spy on Dreams) [30/30PP] AP: Concealment 10 (All senses, Extra: Linked [+0] [Insubstantial]) + Insubstantial 2 (Gaseous, Extra: Linked [+0] [Concealment]) (Fade Into Dreams) [30/30PP] AP: Dimensional Pocket 10 (Extra: Range/Ranged) (Into My Dreams) [30/30PP] AP: Snare 10 (Extra: Contagious) (Dream Quicksand) [30/30PP] Super Senses 5 (Mental sense, +Accurate, +Acute, +Radius, +Ranged, Extended [100 ft], Feat: Uncanny Dodge) (Dream Awareness) [7PP] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection, 1 week) [7PP] DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Dream Barrage Ranged DC 25+Autofire Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Into My Dreams Ranged DC 20 Reflex Trapped Dream Quicksand Ranged DC 20 Reflex (Staged) Snare Totals: Abilities (22) + Combat (24) + Saving Throws (17) + Skills (25) + Feats (8) + Powers (84) - Drawbacks (0) = 180/183 Power Points