Byrd Man

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Part 1
Perestroika

Southern Ural Mountains
0312 Local Time

<This is bullshit,> Pyotr said in Russian.

He squatted down on his haunches and watched Alexi slowly climb down a metal ladder into a shallow pit. Flood lights rigged above the two men basked the entire area in a bright halogen glow. They were both dressed in jackets and boots with winter caps. Alexi had a pickaxe strapped to his back.

<Yes it is, Pyotr,> Alexi said with a chuckle. <But we're getting paid extremely well for this bullshit.>

<We are scientists. We are men who deal in fact and logic. This is nothing but nonsense.>

Alexi stepped off the ladder and looked down at the ground. The backhoe could only dig so deep in the hard soil. With the first seven feet of topsoil now removed, Pyotr and Alexi would do the rest. He pulled the pickaxe off his back and waited as Pyotr adjusted the floodlights above. Once Alexi had adequate lighting, he started breaking the soil up with the axe.

<It's not so bad,> Alexi grunted between swings. <We get paid ridiculous amounts of money to spend a few months in the Urals pretending to be Indiana Jones.>

Pyotr came down the ladder with a shovel strapped to his back. He removed the spade and stuck it into the earth with a sigh. Tightening his jacket against the cold, Pyotr leaned against the dirt wall of the hole.

<Just think we could be better served back at University and not here, digging for trinkets in the mountains.>

Alexi wiped the growing sweat from his brow and tossed the axe down on the dirt. He shed his coat and handed it to Pyotr.

<Go back up and take this with you. Find my bag, I've got some Vodka in the front pouch. You're always a cheery drunk.>

Pyotr laughed and started back up the ladder. The promised vodka was right where Alexi said it was, a half a pint of the sweet liquid still left inside the bottle. He tossed the the jacket down beside the back and pocketed the vodka.

<Hey!> Alexi yelled from the pit. <I think I found something!>

He started back to the hole. The loud, blood curdling shriek from Alexi stopped him in his tracks halfway. His hesitation was only momentary, and he started pounding for the pit. Another shriek from the pit was so loud it hurt Pyotr's ear and buckled his knees. He fell down into the hard dirt. The floodlights above popped off, each bulb breaking one by one before casting the whole area in darkness. Pytor's heart raced as he tried to crawl in the dark, away from the hole and whatever was down there. The screams had done something to him, he couldn't focus and his thoughts were muddled and confused. Something strong wrapped itself around his ankle. He yelled and tried to push away from it, but it was locked in on his leg.

The thing pulled and Pyotr screamed as whatever it was dragged him through the dirt. He tried to find any sort of handhold or purchase on the ground as he whizzed by, desperately thrashing out for some sort of lifeline. Pyotr felt himself down into the hole with the thing. He felt like he was falling for a half second before he landed on something. It was wet, squishy, and it had teeth.

And that was when the real screaming began.

---

25 Hours Later
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
Executive Branch Headquarters

Heavy clouds of cigarette smoke filled the operations room. The six mission control operators sitting behind monitors quietly did their job while the director of operations sat in silence in his wheelchair, puffing away on the unfiltered cigarette wedged into the holder in his mouth. The large global map occupying the front of the ops room showed the entire world in a green glow, with displayed points of interest marked in red.

"Bring up POI 8713-12," the director said.

One of the operators hit a button. The map on the wall shifted to a display of information and pictures and data. The director watched the data flow by, his brain running calculations and numbers with the speed of a computer. After all the data was finished, a blinking display summed up with the director already knew would be the next step.

URAL MOUNTAIN SITE
25:42:10 SINCE RADIO SILENCE
POTUS INCIDENT INTERVENTION: RECOMMENDED

The director took a heavy pull off his cigarette and expelled it into the air in a long, billowing cloud. Finally, he spoke to the young technicians monitoring their respective maps.

"If any crises pop up while I am away, I am to be told right away. But for now it's business as usual."

The electric wheelchair noiselessly glided across the ops room. The door leading to the corridor slid open, and Franklin Roosevelt rolled out of the shadows and into the light. He started tapping buttons on the wheelchair's armrest as it sped down the hall, activating holographic display of the ops board in front of him. Beside the board were names, some listed in red while others were green. He picked three green names and highlighted them to activate their communication feeds.

"Attention," he said in a clear and calm voice. "This is Mr. Roosevelt. There is to be a briefing in the conference room in ten minutes. Your presence is required."

---

Subbasement 4
"Nixonland"

"Agnew!"

The tall frame of Spiro Agnew shuffled down the dark corridors of Nixon's study. Ancient leather bound books sat on the rows of shelves Agnew passed. Along with the books were jars of organs and small creatures pickled in formaldehyde. A dismembered hand floating in the liquid tapped the glass as Agnew walked by. The former vice-president ignored the hand's taunts and kept walking. The hand twisted itself to show Agnew its middle finger.

Agnew came out of the corridor of shelves into the study's rotunda where all the shelves ended. More books and specimens cluttered large wooden tables. A spider the size of a German Shepard scuttled across a table and disappeared under it. Racing after it was a spider of equal size, but it appeared to be made out of ropy vines. Agnew looked at the odd and unusual sights with bored contempt before casting his eyes up.

"Yes, sir?" he mumbled in a monotone voice.

In the middle of the study, floating cross-legged above the rotunda, was Richard Nixon. The 37th US President's usual suit and tie had been swapped out for a set of dark robes and a hood. He started drifting back down to the ground, finally unfolding his legs just before they were inches from the floor.

"Yes," Nixon finally said. "Did you collect the samples I need?"

"Yes, sir." Agnew reached into his jacket pocket and handed Nixon three vials. "One vial of pig blood, a lock of hair from a virgin, and the wart from Harry Kissinger's backside."

"Good man... especially on that last one."

Agnew shuddered while Nixon pocketed the samples into his robes. While his former vice-president shuffled off, Nixon hurried down one of the rows of books to find what he needed. He pulled a book bound in human skin from the shelf and began to thumb through it.

"I... have a dream..."

Nixon looked up from his reading and sighed. He put the book under his arm and walked through the study towards a large pane of two-way glass. One the opposite side of the glass was Martin Luther King Jr., laid out on a metal slab and mumbling and jerking in his sleep. Sweat trickled down his brow as he opened his mouth to speak.

"I have a dream... That the no-god from the no-place has breached the fabric. Yes... I have a dream that three will depart and five will return. Yes, Lord. When the Happy Warrior howls, the man of Hickory shall rise to the occasion... I have a dream that the son of the Republic will be consumed by the gnawing and gnashing teeth of the void. From the mountains of Russia, to the deserts of Africa, from Mississippi to Mongolia, the no-god's darkness will consume the earth. Death at last, death at last, God save us all from death at last. I have a dream... "

Nixon stepped away the glass, wiping sweat from his forehead that he didn't know was there. He shook his head and stepped away from the now sleeping King. The communication device on his wrist chirped with an incoming message.

"Attention, this is Mr. Roosevelt. There is to be a briefing in the conference room in ten minutes. Your presence is required."

The line went dead. Nixon ran his fingers through his hair with his left while rigging up an transportation spell with his right. When the spell finished, he disappeared from the study in a puff of gray smoke.

---

Chamery, France

The lone figure trudged across the open field, his hands in his pockets. He kept his head down as he climbed up the small, muddy slope. Distant thunder rumbled across the overcast sky from far away. At the center of the hill was a tiny shrine, a cross made from airplane propellers. A plaque attached to the cross explained who was buried there in French.

Lieutenant
Quentin Roosevelt
Escadrille 95
Tombé glorieusement
En combat aerien
Le 14 Juillet 1918
Pour le droit
Et la liberté

The figure gripped the cross hard and fought back the urge to cry as he remembered a previous lifetime.

"Quentin," Theodore Roosevelt said softly. "My little boy... Nearly one hundred years... one hundred. Not a day goes by that I do not miss you, or your brothers and sisters. I would give anything in the world to see them or you at least one more time, this immortality be damned."

"Attention, this is Mr. Roosevelt," the commlink on Teddy's lapel said."There is to be a briefing in the conference room in ten minutes. Your presence is required."

Roosevelt placed a hand on his son's grave and patted it softly.

"I'm afraid I have to go, my boy. I will see you soon."

Teddy keyed in buttons on his comm. A green aura appeared around him and grew brighter until he disappeared in a green flash.

---

Executive Branch Briefing Room
Ten Minutes Later

My fellow presidents," Franklin Roosevelt said to the three presidents in the room. Wedged in between Teddy and Nixon was the scowling figure of Andrew Jackson. "I also called Mister Kennedy to this briefing, but he appears to be... indisposed... We shall--"

Nixon scoffed loudly before clearing his throat. FDR stared coldly at Nixon, sucking on his cigarette holder before expelling smoke from his mouth.

"As I was saying, we shall endeavor to make due without Mr. Kennedy. Please turn your focus to the far wall."

The large monitor on the wall kicked on. Walls of numbers and data cascaded down the screen before the view shifted to a map of Russia. A bright red dot in the southwestern part of the map pulsed. A label identified the pulsing dot as Chelyabinsk. A video beside the map started playing a bright ball of fire falling from the sky before exploding over the Russian countryside.

"This meteor entered Russian airspace twenty months ago. The heat from the atmospheric arrival caused a massive explosion that destroyed most of the rock in the process. The majority of the object that made it through the atmosphere ended up in the Ural Mountains and nearby Lake Chebarkul. The Russian government and the global scientific community identified most of the meteorite fragments as ordinary chondrite."

Roosevelt waved a hand at the screen. The picture shifted to a zoomed in satellite photo of a piece of snow-covered land with several buildings grouped around each other in a semi-circle.

"Our spy satellite Nelson picked this site up after the official inquiry into the meteor was closed. Our operative codenamed PINBALL was sent into the facility to investigate. Through PINBALL's investigation we were able to identify an excavation project funded by one Konstantin Shastin."

FDR nodded, the monitor changing to a picture of Shastin, a trim middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair. He was dressed in a three-piece suit, surrounded by other well dressed men as well as Saudi businessmen wearing the traditional Keffiyeh on their heads. Another photo showed shastin with Putin and his inner circle. Newspaper articles on Shastin and magazine covers flanked the photos and painted a picture of extreme prominence and wealth for the Russian.

"Shastin is a billionaire. He owns half the oil fields in Azerbaijan, the biggest telecom company in Russia, and is on the Executive Branch's watchlist. Shastin was a member of the Communist Party in the 80's, a member of the Soviet People's Geology Committee. After the fall of the USSR Shastin made alliances with young members of the government, most notably Vladimir Putin. We have reason to believe he has ties to the Secret Soviet Union, and has used his status with them to further his monetary gains. The site was put on immediate observation after PINBALL's discovery. We've been watching as they dig for something in the mountains, something related to that meteor. Almost twenty-six hours ago, the entire site went dark. No radio communication, no traffic in and out, and as far as we can tell no heat signatures from our satellite observations.

"Your mission is to travel to the Urals with our science team and investigate the cause of the radio silence. I have assigned you each roles. Cousin Teddy will coordinate and lead the investigation. Mister Nixon will be there in case magic was involved. General Jackson will lead a tactical team to act in support of our field investigators. General Jackson, your team will lead a small scouting party in advance of the science team's arrival, clearing the area for them before they begin their studies. You'll be wheels up and on the way to Russia within the hour. Any questions, comments, or general insight?"

"Just one," Teddy said with a grin. "Bully."

Legions: Rise of Rome

Talk to Ded first, he's ranking legate in the fight.

Legions: Rise of Rome

Jangel and his legion should be at the battle as well.

Legions: Rise of Rome

LancerDancer said
Dedonus and Byrd, do you understand what he's getting at here? And also, would you like me set the scene through the IC for you?

Yeah, he sent me something over PM giving me a choice between two things. That's apparently the result of the choice. I'm fine with you setting the scene and then we can work from there.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Well the Executive Branch is supposed to be so secret that only maybe a dozen or so people outside of it know it actually exists. They're in the shadows, have been for years. I don't plan on creating a Presidential Justice League or anything (but holy hell I should), so they'll be low-key and I do kind of have a reason as to why nobody looks twice when Abraham goddamn Lincoln is walking down the street.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

nitemare shape said
what in the holy fuck?! Byrd, I've missed you. Hoped you'd come at us with a certain other of your creations though.....Something tried, something true, something fast, something blue.

I've moved on from the Blue Blur. I no longer rip off DC and Marvel comics characters, I now rip from the pages of history itself!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Create a Hero RPG Application

Character you have created: Theodore Roosevelt

Alias: None

Speech Color: Normal speech.

Character Alignment: Hero

Identity: His identity is known, the fact that he's still alive is secret.

Character Personality: Roosevelt is very gung-ho (bully!) and considers himself a man of action. He will not hesitate to do whatever he needs to do to accomplish his goals. His willingness for combat is a front at this point. He needs to fight to feel alive. Long stretches without missions throw him into a state of melancholy. With no family and no friends, he needs something to do to give him purpose and strength. His is a man who needs a mission and without a mission he falls apart.

Uniform/costume: Picture

Origin Info/Details:

Executive Branch Backstory

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence and went to war with Great Britain. In early 1777 General George Washington met with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia. With Jefferson was a man from France. Young Gilbert du Motier, known as the Marquis de Lafayette, was a prominent French military office even at his young age. With Washington was Prussian Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Both men spoke to the three revolutionaries about an old and powerful society known as the Timekeepers. Made up of the elite thinkers, nobles, and politicians, the Timekeepers acted as metronome for the entire world responsible for maintaining the rhythm and natural order of things. It was the Timekeepers that declared that the time of British hegemony would begin to end. The colonies would win the war, Lafayette and von Steuben would help them.

In a ceremony in Philadelphia Washington, Adams, and Jefferson were inducted into the Timekeepers order and shown their secrets. The ancient society possessed powerful artifacts of supernatural nature and had access to magic. Using the Timekeepers' tools, the Colonies defeated England and declared their independence. In 1787 Washington was elected president of the United States, Adams his vice president, and Jefferson appointed secretary of state. As part of the Timekeepers, all three men had been made immortal and given a serum that gave them special abilities. All three faked their deaths at appropriate times and went into hiding in Europe in the early 1800's.

In 1830 the three men discovered the Timekeepers' long and winding plot that would see the United States expand all the way to the Pacific ocean, and then shatter into two separate nations after a long and bloody civil war. The three founding fathers could not bear to see the country they founded destroyed. Defying their society, the men fled Europe and returned to US. They used whatever means they could to stop and delay civil war. In 1860 they used their hidden influence to elect a man who would keep the union together: Abraham Lincoln. They revealed themselves to him and worked with Lincoln throughout the war. The Timekeepers discovered the founding father's treachery and turned on them. Unable to stop the Union from winning the war, they had Lincoln assassinated in revenge. They didn't stop the Founders.They used their magic to bring Lincoln back from the grave days after he was killed.

Europe and the powers that controlled it could no longer be trusted. The old world could never govern or control the new. The four presidents founded the Executive Branch. A clandestine organization that would protect and fight for the United States, her interest, and freedom any place and anywhere. Their ranks are made up of former American presidents and other historical figures, each of them turned immortal in the same way the three founders were. Their long war with the Timekeepers ended after the First World War, when the last remnants of the old and rotten society were swept away in the fiery cataclysm of the war.

Now in 2014, they wage clandestine wars against a variety of threats that include the Secret Soviet Union, the Fourth Reich, and the Roman Republic of Zombies. But something dark and unknown lurks on the outer reaches of the world. A darkness is setting in, and an old power is returning to take control.

Roosevelt Backstory

Theodore Roosevelt was born in 1858 to a prominent New York family. The young "Teddy" had several adventures, from becoming a boxing champion at Harvard to a historian and politician, to cowboy and sheriff's deputy in Montana, before he ventured into public service. He served as the first Commissioner of the New York Police Department and helped the expanding city's police develop into a true metropolitan police force. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War caused him to resign his office and recruit his own cavalry regiment to the fight the war.

As Colonel Roosevelt leading the Rough Riders, Teddy accomplish military victories in Cuba that launched his political career further. He ran and was elected as Governor of New York and began a crusade for public reform. The powers that be in New York became scared of Roosevelt and out-maneuvered him by having him nominated as Vice-President under incumbent William McKinley, tossing Roosevelt out of the governor's mansion and in a meaningless post for four years. An assassin's bullet changed everything.

When McKinley died, Roosevelt became President and pushed forward with the rapid expansion of American military and industrial might, as well as reform in industry, government, and business. He finished McKinley's term and was reelected in a landslide. He decided not to seek a third term and handed the ball to his good friend William Howard Taft. Roosevelt in retirement watched Taft's presidency with a critical eye. He judged that his friend has mismanaged the cause of the Progressives and decided to run for president again in 1912 as a third party candidate in the "Bull Moose Party" the bitter election between Roosevelt and Taft caused the two men to split the Republican and Progressive vote, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected.

Roosevelt watched powerlessly while Wilson guided America into the First World War, a role he believed he should have done. His failing health only worsened when he learned the devastating news that his youngest son Quentin's plane had been shot down over France. The man who had always loved the thrill of combat had the brutal truths of war brought home to him. He died less than a year later at the age of sixty.

Shortly after the war the Executive Branch exhumed his body and brought him back to life. Immortal and reinvigorated, Roosevelt tried to work his way out of the loss of his son. As an operative he participated in OPERATION: SCAR in Chicago to root out occultist bootleggers in 1924 and OPERATION: DAGGER STEADY in 1936 involving the growing mystic powers of the Nazi Thule Society. During the outbreak of the Second World War Roosevelt was active in all theaters, from stealing the German Enigma Code with Abraham Lincoln to battling a Japanese sorceress with his old rival Taft. After the collapse of the Third Reich and the retreat of the Fourth Reich, the Executive Branch dug in to support freedom during the long Cold War with the Soviet Union and their counterpart to the EB, the Heroes of Lenin.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of terrorism as the main concern of the day means that Roosevelt and his colleagues have had to change up their way of doing things to protect the world from threats.

Hero Type: Normal

Power Level: Street Level

Powers: None

Attributes: Roosevelt is an expert marksman with his fabled elephant gun as well as a skilled combatant in a variety of hand to hand fighting styles. Executive Branch training has also given him proficient espionage and spycraft abilities.

Strength Level: Normal Human.

Speed/Reaction Timing Level: Normal Human

Endurance at MAXIMUM Effort: Normal Human

Agility: Normal Human

Intelligence: Genius

Fighting Skill: Mastered

Resources: Extreme

Weaknesses: Roosevelt is immortal and cannot die of old age or disease, but he can be killed.

Supporting Characters:

Franklin D. Roosevelt - Theodore's cousin, director of operations for the Executive Branch
Abraham Lincoln - Fellow Executive Branch field agent
John F. Kennedy - Fellow Executive Branch field agent
Andrew Jackson - Fellow Executive Branch field agent
Fredrick II "Fredrick the Great" - Former Timekeeper grandmaster, Roosevelt nemesis
Lyudmila Pavlichenko - Soviet Sniper, Secret Soviet Union agent, Roosevelt love interest
Richard Nixon - Executive Branch's resident mage and mystic expert

Do you know how to post pictures on RPG boards?: Yes.

Sample Post (Minimum Four paragraphs containing dialogue. As this is an Advanced Level game, Sample must also meet the RPG forum's minimum requirement of 12 lines):

Chamery, France
July 14th, 1936

The lone figure trudged across the open field, his hands in his pockets. He kept his head down as he climbed up the small, muddy slope. Distant thunder rumbled across the overcast sky from far away. At the center of the hill was a tiny shrine, a cross made from airplane propellers. A plaque attached to the cross explained who was buried there in French.

Lieutenant
Quentin Roosevelt
Escadrille 95
Tombé glorieusement
En combat aerien
Le 14 Juillet 1918
Pour le droit
Et la liberté

The figure gripped the cross hard and fought back the urge to cry as he remembered a previous lifetime.

"Quentin," Theodore Roosevelt said softly. "My little boy... Nearly twenty years... Not a day goes by that I do not miss you, or your brothers and sisters. I would give anything in the world to see them or you at least one more time, this immortality be damned."

"Monsieur!" A voice shouted from behind Roosevelt. A young French boy ran towards him, waving a piece of paper. "Un télégramme est arrivé pour vous."

"Merci," Roosevelt said as he took the message.

DEAR TR
COME HOME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. NEW EMERGENCY HAS CROPPED UP. WILL EXPLAIN AT RUSHMORE.

Q.

Roosevelt stuffed the telegram in his pocket and bent down at the grave. He kissed his hand before placing it on the cross, touching the plaque with his son's name engraved on it..

"I'm afraid I have to go, but I will see you soon."

He stood and ruffled the French boy's head before smiling.

"Thank you very much, lad. Now, would you be so kind as to show me where the nearest train station is?"

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

The beige '32 Packard sped down the winding dirt highway, contrails of dust flying in the air in the car's wake. To the left of the car, the looming mountain appeared in the early afternoon sun. So far half of George Washington's and Thomas Jefferson's faces had been carved into the rocky mountain face. The Packard pulled off onto a small side road and slowly moved down the bumpy surface. After thirty minutes on the road, the car came to an opening at the foot of the mountain. Two guards stood at attention beside a steel door leading into the mountain. They wore the olive drab fatigues and broad brim hats of the American Doughboys from the Great War, rifles slung over their shoulders. An old man with thick white sideburns and a bald head stood in front of the guards, puffing a cigar.

The Packard stopped and Roosevelt stepped out of the back. He eyed the bald man and grinned.

"Mr. Q."

"Mr. Roosevelt," John Quincy Adams said, expelling smoke. "Sorry to cut your vacation short, I know what this time of year does to you."

"Think nothing of it. In fact, a little bit of action will be sure to pull me out of my doldrums."

The two guard saluted as he and Adams passed. Teddy returned the salute and entered through the steel door behind Adams. They continued through a dim hallway, going down a soft slope into the heart of the mountain. The hallway reeked of fresh paint. Moving dollies and packed crates filled nearly every nook and cranny of the corridors and rooms they passed.

"How much longer until everything is set up?" Teddy asked.

"Not too much longer now. William Henry Harrison still needs to be exercised from the Smithsonian basement, you know how hard it is for ghosts to let go sometimes. He marks the last of our personnel still in Washington."

"I still never figured out why we had to move from Washington, the best place to operate."

"We have your cousin to thank for that," Quincy said as he puffed a large smoke ring out. "Young Franklin is increasing the power of the federal government, it's getting harder and harder to operate in the shadow of a Washington that continues to get brighter and brighter. A bit industrious, that one."

"Well we Roosevelts do have reputations as go-getters."

"While we Adamses are known for our stubbornness."

Adams led Teddy into a large, open space room. The room was covered in world maps on three sides, a fourth wall blanketed in pictures and files. A large wooden conference table spanned the stretch of the room. Someone sat at the table, waiting for them.

"Mr. Jackson," Adams said coolly. "Sorry to have kept you waiting, but Mr. Roosevelt has just arrived. Make yourself comfortable, Teddy, and I'll start the briefing."

"Bully."

Legions: Rise of Rome

Rome

Cursor strode through the busy streets of Rome with his small retinue of staff members following in his wake. He was still furious at the Assembly for the way they chastised him for saying what clearly needed to be said. He hated the power structure of Rome, the old men, and all they stood for. He knew that his hatred was rooted in his own father and the disdain the old man had shown for him and his mother. He wanted to show the Patricians, his half-siblings especially, that they were no better than the people they looked down upon. Word of his behavior in the Assembly had already reached the people and he noticed several approving nods and salutes in his direction.

"Ave Legatus," Cursor announced when he entered the legate's quarters just outside the city walls. "Aulus Gordianus Tranquillus, I am Quintus Cursor of Legio VIII: Spurii Romanae. The Bastards of Rome. Well met. I have our orders from the Consul. We are to ride with all due haste up the coast towards the western half of the Arno. From there we make our stand, and no pig of Carthage shall be allowed to cross that river."

Cursor paused and looked at the legate. He wasn't encouraged by the site of the man who looked much younger than he.

"Are you up to the task, Gordianus?"

Democracy in Action: A Political RP

I'm working on a reply, but I was hoping either the Dems or other Republicans would react to the Speaker's comments.

Legions: Rise of Rome

You can go ahead and do that and I'll tag off yours.