Super Pirates!

Superheroes meet the Spanish Main. The New World has been partially tamed by the Old, its residents conquered and turned towards servitude of the European monarchs and emperors. The mercantile system exploits the natives and colonists alike for any profit they can produce, especially silver and gold from the fallen Aztec and Incan nations or sugar from the Carribbean isles. Where the rulers are corrupt and out purely for self-enrichment, the true heroes are considered outlaws.

A buccaneer crew sailing under a pirate flag with superheroic abilities, battling both the darker breeds under the Jolly Roger and the European thrones seeking to grind all resistance under their heel.

Potential Crew

Captain Minos

Real Name: Thaddeus Palmer

Position: Captain of the Daedalus

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Powers: Though he has no true "powers," Captain Minos is an incredibly quick-witted thinker and strategist. He does what he can in every instance to learn of and understand his opponents so that he might prey upon their weaknesses or superstitions. He is also a very convincing actor, and can portray almost any character with immense realism.

Notable Posessions: Captain Minos has specially-crafted gloves, packed with tiny beads of lead, which he uses to give himself both the ability to catch bullets and a wicked punch.

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Originally an actor and street performer, the captain actually has no true super powers - though he does a very effective job in tricking others into believing he does through a clever combination of theatrics, inventiveness, and sheer gutsiness.

Deacon

Real Name: Edana Sharpe.

Position: Main gunner, master at arms.

History: Illegitimate daughter of the imprisoned, reviled, and eventually murdered Scottish minister James Sharp, a player in the English Revolution and Restoration who went from Protestant negotiator to Anglican sympathizer to dead body in a ditch. Has a very dim view of Christianity, as her father was killed by Christians for backing a form of Christianity originally derived from another sect of Christianity which opposed the Christians who did the killing. Has a similarly-dim view of government, as all this happened when the English king was killed, a bunch of other people grabbed for the throne, they all failed to keep the peace and assist the general populace, and the dead king's relatives were eventually called back in to pick up the pieces. As there was nothing left for her in Scotland but hate and poverty, she hid her gender and joined the "Admiral's Regiment" corps of marines in the Royal Army to escape her past by sailing away. When it was found out that she was female, she was given the lash repeatedly for her deception of the king's forces... as well as her Atheist and Anarchist views. Despite being one of the best crack shots they had, the captain of the vessel she was stationed on (who sought to force her into marriage, despite her refusals) drove her out of the official service of Britain. She finally jumped ship after murdering the lecherous captain... and is currently wanted in Britain for murder, piracy, treason and crimes against God. Only the murder bothers her.

Powers: Deacon has no significant superhuman powers, and for the most part doesn't need them. What she has instead is a savant's grasp of ballistics and a true "weather eye" level of vision. Edana is capable of seeing at ranges and noting specific details impossible for normal men to perceive. This does not stretch to microscopic or telescopic vision, but allows her to nonetheless read the lips of another ship's crew when it is a hundred yards or more away. She also, thanks to this keen attention to observation and miniscule details, is capable of reading the winds and movements of the local area which might affect a shot. Combined with her vast experience and intuitive grasp of firearm physics, this allows Deacon to know where an arrow, cannonball, or musket shot will land before it is even fired - giving her a dead aim with any projectile, as well as the uncanny ability to dodge bullets simply by knowing where they will end up and avoiding that spot to the inch. When paired with her formidible arsenal of weaponry, meticulously crafted and maintained on her person at nearly all times, this makes her a match for even those with truly supernatural gifts.

Notable Posessions: Deacon is never seen without at least one firearm on her person. On deck or on shore, she wears a bandolier of small flintlock derringers across her chest and under her greatcoat, as well as a brace of large-bore musketoons packed with small shot sheathed at her thighs. All are tied with ribbons to her belt, preventing their loss once they have expended their singular shot. Edana also carries her personal longbore musket on all actions where combat is expected. The musket has been painstakingly crafted to fit her grip and firing style exactly, and its sensitivity is so precise that with it she can hit a man onboard an opposing vessel almost as soon as they are in cannon range. For protecting the Daedalus, she uses her "prize" - an original Puckle Gun captured as an unexpected treasure in a raid on British warships headed to shore up the King's colonial holdings. Deacon has modified it extensively since that time, making it a formidible (although not easily human-portable) anti-ship device. Her inventiveness does not stop there - her weapons' powder is conveniently stored in iron spheres sealed with fused stoppers, should the need arise, as she got tired of carrying both powder for explosives and powder for firearms in separate containers. Should all these weapons fail her, a single dagger is kept ready at her hip... and it, of course, is also designed to perfectly fit as a bayonet on her musket. Rarely does she need to go so far as to draw and mount it, of course.

Personality: Edana is a dark soul. She joined with the Daedalus crew thanks to losing a contest against its captain, and while she serves with no reservations she doesn't believe the ship's works (or her own deeds) do any lasting good in the world. She believes in the phrase "hell is other people" as a mantra, and is thus absolutely certain that humanity cannot possibly ever be happy and coexistant with itself. She furthermore hates the supernatural, be it spirits or gods, for failing to intervene and bring balance to the world when humanity has so utterly failed to do so. Despite this omnipresent cynicism, however, Deacon desperately WANTS to fix things - she would willingly sacrifice her own life if it even slightly had a chance of redeeming mankind (or, in her own estimation, herself). This goes a long way towards explaining why she doesn't just put a gun to her head, but she goes into every battle with volatile explosives packed around her body in dozens of forms.

Beliefs: Strong Atheist - doesn't believe in true deities, and would seek to rebel against and destroy them were they proven to exist.

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Appearance: Edana's body is covered with scars from the cat-o'-nine lash used on her by the officers of the King's military. Her arms, legs, back, and even chest are traversed with the memories of her punishments in ribbon-like bands of white, marking her past in His Royal Highness's service. She also has one scar on her face - her most recent, a smooth line travelling from her hairline across her right eye and down her cheek, from where her former captain tried to blind her firing eye with a broken bottle, forcing her out of her profession so that he could "support her in her trying times." That scar brushes over her eyelid, but didn't reach her blue-gray eyes. Her hair itself is a long black, deep to the point of having purple hues, which she always keeps in a tidy braid (a habit from her regimental days). Deacon is otherwise far from out of the ordinary - tall and athletic, but not unusually so - a fact that allowed her to slip into the Navy with no second glances cast her way.

Common Clothing: Deacon almost always wears clothing that covers her entire body, even on the hottest of days, to hide the scars she perceives as shameful. Her typical outfit is a black watchcoat, worn open, over a vest made from her old uniform jacket. Under that is a frankly austere set of common garb: a loose linen shirt, some baggy black leather trousers, and a pair of boots. Edana's only concession to fashion is a tricorn hat (all the rage in Europe) and three silver stud earrings in her left ear (traditional for sailors - to afford burial, one's body must have precious metals on or in it somewhere).

Habits: Edana smokes cigars, a habit she picked up as an official marine. They are one of the few small pleasures she allows herself. Otherwise, she is almost obsessively involved in her work and duties. Several hours out of every day are spent cleaning, maintaining, checking and tinkering with every firearm on the Daedalus, further modifying her own weaponry to function with clockwork precision or working to make the ship's cannon stronger, more accurate, and faster to fire. Deacon is very strict about her position as the master at arms, and at the very least attempts to make all ship's crew train with and be proficient in basic swordplay and firearms; her reasoning is that, should all alternatives fail, a better-skilled fighter can still disarm or force the surrender of others using even normal weapons and thus avoid killing.

Motto: "I would that the last king were strangled with the guts of the last priest." - Jean Meslier

Personal Quotes: "Deacon is not my name. It is a title, and not one with any association to your church. In Edinburgh, it denotes the master of a craft - as I am the master of mine." "I refuse to believe that God exists until he shows himself in my gun sights. And if he ever does, I will pull the trigger - for no just and loving deity would permit a world like this."

Secrets: Knows that the captain has no super powers; being told this knowledge after the captain's display of superhuman feats was what convinced her to join the crew of the Daedalus. Wears her father's cross under her clothes every day, a statement more of her faith in her father than in her father's god. Tormented by the recognition that she is merely human as well, and is prone to outbursts of anger or irrational emotion as much as anyone else; it is this anger which drove her to murder in her time under the Crown.

IDEA! - Deacon is standing on a cliff, preparing to leap off, when the captain challenges her. It is pointed out that she has a GUN, so standing on the edge of a cliff is simply asking for assistance to be provided. He offers to shoot her, should she really want a quick way out, and draws his pistol only to have her dodge the shot and return fire; he catches the bullet in his hand. After argument about the possibility of changing the world with or without supernatural powers, the captain removes his glove and pours out a mass of lead shot. This ends their argument, and Deacon follows with no further complaint.

Stitch

Real Name: Corentin LeJeune.

Position: Ship's carpenter, surgeon.

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Haitian creole. A living voodoo doll - reverse of the traditional formula, the man's spirit controls the figure instead of the figure controlling the spirit. As a part of this, he has the ability to extend his spirit outwards into other things (people, barrels, what have you) and take partial or complete control of them. This allows him to both temporarily posess people and "stitch" things together to make ersatz bodies out of rope, tools, or anything else nearby should he need a larger fighting form. As a result he can fix damage or injuries by temporarily posessing the injured/damaged thing and willing the harm to mend itself. This, like harm to a gestalt body, results in the injuries appearing on the voodoo doll - but thankfully, aside from pain the injuries do no real harm to Stitch himself as he can simply sew himself back together. As a result he is entirely covered in seams, patches, and other results of past injuries that he has "healed." Characteristics: Character Derivations:

Bilge

Real Name: Spencer Cooke

Position: Ship's cook, supply officer, crow's nest nightwatch.

History: During the Dutch occupation of the Brazilian coast in the mid 1600s there was a power vacuum in the administration and protection of the nominally-Portuguese colony. The Dutch battled the Portuguese for control, but neither managed to produce enough strength to hold the land securely; entire renegade communities of escaped slaves or outlaws managed to exist in obscure inland areas where neither power could reach. During this time, the British crown took the opportunity presented by this weakness to secretly scout the Amazon basin for potential trade prospects in the area. The expedition was a disaster, failing entirely to resurface from the river mouth, and was quickly recognized by royal decree to have never happened at all.

What doomed the expedition was the discovery of a native ritual ground in the deep Amazon tributaries, an ancient stone temple half-sunken into the river mud but still filled with the artifacts of an unknown tribal faith. The captain ransacked the "ruin," easily butchering its guards with the help of his firearms, and had the voyage's priest attempt a consecration of the area. The next day, all the relics were missing from the holds of the small river fleet... and all hands aboard had been transformed into animals of the area. It was impossible to sail back out of the tributaries when most of the crew lacked anything close to thumbs, and discontent among the crew built until many had deserted into the wilderness to live like the beasts they had become. The captain himself, having been turned into a massive Anaconda, took the few remaining loyal (and useful) men he had and abandoned the rest in the middle of the night - sailing off downstream in one of the smaller ships.

Spencer Cooke was the expedition's quartermaster and the cook aboard the flagship vessel. Left to his own devices, he organized those who still wished to return to the European civilization and managed to get that handful out down the Orinoco River that naturally joins with the Amazon. His mere existence brings out calls of demons, spirits, and horrible deific retribution, however, and as the British crown has officially refused to recognize that he even exists there is no life waiting for him back in the Old World. The remaining crew of that ill-fated expedition is thus spread between various settlements and ships in the Americas, trying to make a living however they can.

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Personal Quotes: "A rat? A rat?! Have you ever before seen a rat this big mate? I'm a bleedin' carpincho! Not. A. Rat!"

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A sentient capybara (or as he calls himself, a carpincho). Capable of staying underwater for 5 minutes or more with little difficulty. Webbed feet. Has claws able to dig into wood, allowing Bilge to climb up just about any part of any ship. Extremely stealthy. Capable of speaking with other rodents and understanding them. Very keen senses, but easily overwhelmed by extremes such as midday sunlight or cannon fire; as a result, possibly the cleanest member of the crew and certainly the best cook (to avoid bad flavors, scents, and so on and so forth). Became a rodent thanks to his expedition unearthing and stealing a religious artifact in the middle of the Amazon river basin.

Skip

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Position: Newest member of the crew, with no set position.

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Girl with the ability to "phase" out of time for stretches, thus appearing to others to be moving at unimaginable speeds. Can only manage it for short periods, however, as it takes a lot of effort to interact with the world when it is pretty much frozen and Faze can only maintain the time skips with conscious energy. The air feels thick when moving through it in stopped time, and the water might as well be thick mud - viscous enough to run across. People in stopped time also don't gain any greater strength or ability than they already posess, so trying to break a cage by punching the lock several thousand times in frozen time will just result in a broken hand. Faze was thus simply using her abilities to pick pockets and steal food up until Deacon managed to catch her in the act (thanks to her heightened perception and ability to path things out that are moving at ballistic speeds, she readied herself and stopped Faze's hand as it went to steal her coin purse) and the captain invited her on board the Daedalus.

Petrel

Real Name: Seanán Coleridge

Position: Ship's navigator.

History: "Once upon a time, a beautiful lass from the high mountains was betrothed to a Dublin sailor. She was stunning, fair as fair could be, and it was said that all who set eyes upon her knew what true beauty was and marvelled upon her gift. The mountains, streams, and sky of her homeland loved her... but it was the sea who loved her most of all, witnessing her beauty for the first time as she came down to Dublin town to see her gentleman fiancé. They moved to a house by the shore, and often as they planned their oncoming marriage they would take walks upon the stony beaches there. The sea would caress her with its soft winds and chase her with its waves, and they would be truly happy.

The sea is deep and vast and ever-changing, however, and it hides many dark places where dark thoughts may linger. It felt the unfathomable loneliness that only unfathomable waters can feel, whenever the young maiden left its side, and the great banks of fog rolling from its surface were soon spilling over with misery. The sea grew to hate the sailor who would soon take her away from it forever. It wanted her all for itself, wanted her beauty to be its alone, and so on her betrothed's last voyage before their wedding it lashed out against his ship with all its anger and jealousy. Within moments the vessel was lost, the sea hiding it within its far depths so that its crew might never see the sky again. It turned back to the maiden it loved, watching and waiting for the time it might have the opportunity to claim her as its own.

But a curious thing happened: that opportunity never came. For weeks the sea could not even see the lass as she hid in her house on the shore, only appearing for moments at a time as she watched the horizon and wished for an end to her bereavement. When the ship never returned, eventually even this stopped; the beautiful girl had all but vanished, swallowed in her suddenly-empty home, and the wind whispered with the Dublin streets that she would soon surely die. Her demeanor had faded from the tender charm of innocence to the alabaster pallor of grief when next she emerged from her isolation... when she went and met with the sea.

The heartbroken girl came down to the stone-covered coast and sat upon its hard pebbles, looking out to the edge of the world... and saw through the waters, to where the sea looked back upon her. The ageless misery of loss before its time opened her eyes to witness those things of all ages, and she could hear the penitent words of comfort on the salt breeze as it whipped around her... the apologies of the waves as they begged at her feet for forgiveness. The sea had wronged her even as it loved her, and in doing so had taken her light away - for the sea knew nothing of light, living in darkness for so long, and could not realize mankind's need for such things to be truly happy. Yet at that moment, it realized what it had done... and set about fixing it.

As the forlorn lass readied herself for a walk into the briny depths, to meet with her true love in the crushing dark of the abyss, an unimaginable sight stopped her. Winging towards her from the open water was the largest bird she had ever seen, a giant white avian gliding with effortless grace over the sea as it flew her way. Never once flapping its wings, carried by the ocean's will alone, the mysterious creature soared across the caps of the waves and alighted on the shore... in the form of the weeks-lost sailor. The waters had returned their captives, all along the Dublin shore, and the girl had her wedding the very next day - by the sea which, as always, had loved, hated, wronged and amended.

The tides of the ocean are strong, however, their pull often unsurmountable, and eventually the sailor and his bride, and all the crew of that ill-fated voyage, felt the tug of the waters once more. They returned to the sea who loved and cared for them, becoming once more the great birds that even to this day soar across its surface and enjoy its bountiful favor. They became the great sea birds, and the only remaining clue to their former humanity is the family they left scattered across the lands of Éire - men, with the wings of birds and the ear of the sea."

Powers: Petrel has intrinsic command over wind, though that power fades in strength to nothingness the further he goes from the ocean. While on the water or near the shore, however, he has the ability to produce wind of gale forces - enough to lift him into the air with his wings extended, allowing flight, or enough to throw opponents off their feet and send them hurtling yards backwards. This may even be used to deflect arrows, though musket and cannon fire has too much velocity to be carried off by Seanán's windstorms. As an added ability, Petrel has the favor of the sea. While not something to be called on often, and a gift wholly unpredictable in end results, all the winged "children of the sea" find that the ocean is quite protective and nuturing of them - a boon to repay the past misery it deluged upon their ancestors.

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Appearance: Seanán's most defining characteristic is, of course, his wings - white feathered bird's wings, mottled with rusty brown, that reach from their origins at his shoulders to above his head and then back down to just below his knees. Compared to these, everything else about his appearance is positively normal. His hair is a shaggy bronze, his eyes a deep green, and his skin spotted with light-tan freckles from his time at sea. His build is slender but athletic, another reflection of his lengthy shipboard experience, but otherwise Petrel seems rather young-looking for his age; despite being in his late 20s, the only sign of his being out of his teens is a short-clipped goatee.

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A winged man, with powers over wind. Is the reason why the Daedalus has the reputation it does for appearing out of becalmed fogs and sailing almost unscathed through storms.

Rift

Real Name: Domingo "Dom" Santos ("little saint" - a surname given to him by his caretakers)

Position: Cabin boy.

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A young man capable of creating small-to-man-sized holes in space between any flat surfaces in the local area, so long as he is touching them. Has a minor attraction to Skip. Has tiny backwards-pointing horns hidden in his shaggy black hair, and ruddy reddish-tan skin. One of the only anywhere-near-devout Christians on board, somewhat for this reason - he is afraid he is born from a demon of some kind, since he does not truly know his origin. This is also due to the fact that, if he does not AIM his portals with conscious energy, they open up to a strange red-soiled land with many creepy factors; he thus doesn't open up human-sized portals often, though he can, for fear his concentration will lapse and something from that land will be able to get through.

IDEA! - Rift is fighting someone in an enclosed space, and creates a portal in the floor directly beneathe him connected to one in the ceiling... directly above his opponent. Rift thus falls through the floor, stomping his enemy to the ground.

Other Characters

Martingale

Real Name: Croupier Vitali

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Gambler who "plays poker with tarot cards." Uses mystical arts and talismans to bend the odds for immensely-improbable events in his favor. Martingale is a betting theory that states that betting increasing amounts over a losing streak means that eventually the player will win, recovering all previously-lost money and then some. Croupier posesses the "Snake-Eye Gem," a cursed Amethyst stone which he has split in two and carved into dice. These are set in a glass sphere in the top of his cane, and is a focus for his infliction of bad luck onto others as a defense. He is something of a thief, and obtained the gem through that means.

Sirocco

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History: See entry for Petrel.

Powers: Sirocco has intrinsic command over wind, though that power fades in strength to nothingness the further he goes from the ocean. While on the water or near the shore, however, he has the ability to produce wind of gale forces - enough to lift him into the air with his wings extended, allowing flight, or enough to throw opponents off their feet and send them hurtling yards backwards. This may even be used to deflect arrows, though musket and cannon fire has too much velocity to be carried off by his windstorms. As an added ability, Sirocco has the favor of the sea. While not something to be called on often, and a gift wholly unpredictable in end results, all the winged "children of the sea" find that the ocean is quite protective and nuturing of them - a boon to repay the past misery it deluged upon their ancestors.

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Another "child of the sea," who uses wind powers and his wings to enrich himself by convincing others that he is an angel. In reality, has a pathological hatred of Church officials - and especially the Catholic Inquisition, which tried to destroy him as a demonic "false prophet."

Rumrunner Red

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Where many see smuggling as a crime against the state, especially in the mercantilist colonies of the Carribbean, Red sees it as an artform as intricate and difficult to master as dance or theater. His motto is "if you have the coin, I'll have what you want." While this typically applies to alcohols and other rare luxuries mostly restricted to the noble classes, he doesn't limit himself or his practice - he will transport, acquire, or otherwise provide anything he is paid enough to bother with. The only rule is, he won't trade information on prior clients... a rule which has made him one of the most well-connected men in the New World. He thus continually plays a balancing game between the various states and personalities in his operating domain, trying to remain too useful to eliminate or force into subservience while also staying too innocuous for the governments of Europe to take an interest in.