Day 20: Doctor Verity (for B.A.S.H.)

Doctor Verity Rifkin is my attempt at making a somewhat relatable megalomaniac supervillain.

Verity is her real name, and she has a real doctorate from M.I.T. It’s in aeronautics engineering, but Verity has a good working knowledge of most kinds of engineering.  She has been called one of the most dangerous people on the planet. The press usually paints her as a mad scientist. They are not entirely wrong. 

Verity Rifkin grew up in modest circumstances, and her parents quickly realized that she was a prodigy. They had no idea how to deal with a child of her intelligence, but did manage to scrape together the funds to send her to college. Verity studied diligently, and quickly learned that it was sometimes to her advantage to keep her mouth shut. Not that she always succeeded. In 1980 she spent a night behind bars after a demonstration against torture in Iran went off the rails. 

Throughout the 80s she would work for Lockheed-Martin, Hanlon Aerodynamics, and for a short while directly for the Department of Defense. 

In her spare time she read books on philosophy and worked on a sophisticated personal weapons array. When interviewed by Der Spiegel in 1999*, while she was in prison, Verity mentonied reading Buber and Hobbes during these years. 

Verity was deeply inspired by Spinoza’s assertion that “(...) peace is not mere absence of war but is a virtue that springs from force of character”. The rub was to find people of character, and then equip them with dreadful weapons.  Real, positive peace would only grow where an end of direct violence could be enforced. In short, she had to wage war on war.

After robbing several arms manufacturers and fighting the Protectors of Peace (oh the irony!) Verity spent a long time in prison. She was a model inmate, and was allowed to teach maths to her fellow prisoners. 

Verity was let out in 2002, with the promise that she would lend her genius to the War on Terror. She managed to escape, and has since resumed her plan. She has often assembled other costumed criminals to her side when she needs to raise funds for the cause, or curb the excesses of the world’s military-industrial complexes. The League of Crime (Doctors Without Boundaries is meant to be the final one. After all, she's 65, and sometimes feels very tired. She just has to change the world.  

Motivation: World peace, through the creation of a heavily armed moral elite. When one meets Verity she comes across as soft-spoken and thoughtful, far from anyone’s idea of a would-be conqueror or hi-tech fascist. Meeting her in full power armor is another matter entirely.

Two things occupy Verity’s thoughts (other the strange presence of Doctor Menagerie). One is personal. Is Doctor Babylon in fact a real live example of a virtuous person who could enforce peace with intelligence and compassion? Or is she falling for him? No fool like an old fool. 

The other is her mission. Is climate change a bigger threat than warlike nations? Peace won’t be any good if the world’s a blistered husk. 

*(”The Woman Who Demanded Peace”, August 1st, 1999)

Doctor Verity (50 pts)

BRAWN 1 AGILITY 1 MIND 4 

Defense x1 (x4), Mental Defense x4

Damage x1 (x5) Soak x1 (x4)

Powers

Modify Specialist (Level 1) (1 pt)

Verity gets to roll a Bonus Die whenever using Technology (Modify)

Skill Mastery (Mental) (Level 1) (1 pts)

This functions just like Boost of the appropriate Level, raising your Mind for using Mental Skills to a maximum of 5. 

(all other powers come from Verity’s power armor)

Armor (Level 3) (3 pts)

Verity’s power armor increases Brawn to Soak damage by 3

Full Life Support System (Level 5) (4 pts)

Immunity to Hunger, Thirst, and Suffocation (limited duration 4 weeks). 

Resistance to Cold, Heat, Pressure and Radiation.

Infrared Vision (Level 1) (1 pts)

The armor’s helmet lets Verity see in the infrared spectrum.

Super Strength (Level 4) (4 pts)

A 4 point Boost for Brawn with regards to specifically for how much force you can exert. This applies to Brawn used for lifting, wrestling, and damage from hand-to-hand and thrown attacks.

Flight (Level 5) (5 pts)

The armor lets Verity fly at 20 Squares per Panel. 

Combat Learning Program (Level 3) (3 pts)

The power armor is equipped with a program that identifies tendencies in an opponent extremely quickly, enabling Verity to quickly devise a means to beat them. Whenever she is hit by an attack from that opponent, her Defense Multiplier increases by 1, up to a maximum of 2 above normal. This similarly affects her Priority rolls and enables her to mitigate sensory deprivation against that opponent. 

Whenever she attacks an opponent and misses, her Agility to hit that opponent is Boosted by +1 on her next attack. This stacks up to two times. Whenever she attacks an opponent and hits with an attack that has damage based on Mind,her Mind to damage that opponent is Boosted by +1 on her next attack on that opponent, stacking up to two times.

Mini-Doc (Level 3) (3 pts)

This device is a tiny robotic auto-doc, capable of performing surgeries, defibrillating a heart, and treating wounds. This Power works like the Healing Power, healing 3 DM of Dmg when Verity spends a Panel to use it.

E.M.P Shielding (Level 2) (2 pts)

The armor has Immunity to Magnetism and Electricity effects, also rendering you immune to Electromagnetic Pulse effects.

Built-In Armory (Level 3) (3 pts)

The Verity power armor has an arsenal of weapons that pop out whenever she needs them.

Tractor Beam (Level 3) (2 pts)

The armoire can remotely lift and even crudely manipulate objects using an energy beam.

Cutting Torch (Level 2) (2 pts)

The Cutting Torch functions like Special Attack, using your Mind +2 for the Damage Multiplier. When Verity uses the Cutting Torch to do Collateral Damage, it instead does Mind +4 DM.

Rail Gun (Level 3) (5 pts)

The Verity armor has a shoulder-mounted rail gun. This Power functions as Special Attack, doing x6 Damage to targets within a 1x16 Square Line 

Advantages: 

Contingency Program: If Verity loses consciousness, her power armor is programmed to engage the Mini-Doc, and fly her back to the location currently designated as her hq. 

Gadgeteer: You do not always use the same arsenal of equipment and are often making new equipment for yourself to meet specific needs. Once per Issue, you can invent (you must

successfully use the Science skill), build (you must successfully use the Technology skill), and use a new piece of equipment. To do this, one piece of your normal equipment must be replaced by the new piece or pieces. The point value of the new piece(s) must be equal to or less than the old piece.

Disadvantages:

Old Age: Verity is no spring chicken. Old characters are less resilient, only having 80 hits instead of 100,

Normal: Without her power armor, Verity is a normal woman (apart from being a genius weapons engineer). 

Public ID: The public at large knows that Verity is a supervillain. She has no secret identity to protect her privacy. 

Skills: Physical: Craftsmanship (Weaponry)

Mental: Science (Physics), Technology (Repair, Invent, Modify)