The Archon Files

the
Archon Files
A Grrl Power Superhero Sourcebook
By Marion G. Harmon
with thanks to David Barrack
Jason Mitchell (Order #37325173)

The Archon Files: A Grrl Power Sourcebook
Writer Grrl Power © 2010 by Dave Barrack. Fate Core System and
Marion G. Harmon Fate Accelerated Edition © 2013 by Evil Hat Productions,
LLC. Developed, authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera,
Grrl Power Writer and Artist
Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson,
Dave Barrack
Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob
Layout/Graphic Design Donoghue.
Patrina Beard
Table of Contents
What is This?.....................................................3 Daphne DeShantis (Harem)..................22
Leaving the Archon Reality.........................4 Brook Falls (Heatwave)......................... 24
Superheroing in The Archon Reality..........7 Stewart Aegir (Stalwart).......................26
Archon Campaign Dial Settings & Rules....8 Sydney Scoville, Jr. (Halo)......................28
Agents of Archon.........................................10 Azarin Nazari (Jiggawat).......................30
Maximillia Leander (Maxima)...............................10 Xochitl Xochiqetzal (Varia)...................32
Hiro Nakamura (Super Hiro)................................12 Xuriel Shahara Tantalis (Dabbler).........34
Gary Gleeson (Mr. Amorphous)...........................14 Mathias Johnson (Math)........................36
Peggy Kessler........................................................16 Zephan Zoeng........................................38
Harold Harper (Achilles).......................................18 Credits & Copyrights..........................40
Kenya Landry (Anvil)............................................20
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The Archon Files
What is This?
The Archon Files is a sourcebook introducing players to another
superhero setting, the “Archon Reality” of the Grrl Power web-comic
written and illustrated by David Barrack, using Evil Hat’s Fate Condensed
rules. Dave describes the comic as:
“A comic about a crazy nerdette that becomes a superheroine.

Humor, action, cheesecake, beefcake, ‘splosions, and maybe some
drama. Possibly ninjas. Rated PG-13 for violence and gratuitous
cheesecake (and beefcake) Rated R for language. Seriously, Sydney
has a filthy mouth.”
The Archon Files is not a rulebook or complete setting book; it gives

an overview of Dave’s fun setting in the form of a report from a field agent
sent from the reality of the Wearing the Cape book series. (Quick recap for
those not in the know: in Team-Ups and Crossovers, Astra reality-jumped
through several worlds, one of which was the setting of Grrl Power.) This
is a sourcebook for groups wishing to encounter (or play with) the hugely
entertaining supers of Arc-SWAT.
The Archon Files is designed to be played using the rules of Fate
Condensed (FC). Players may wish to also refer to Super-Powered Fate,
but SPF is not required. The Archon Files includes guidelines for creating
super characters in the Archon Reality, using Dave’s take on Power Scale,
as well as complete files for Halo, Maxima, Dabbler, and the rest of Arc-
SWAT’s active field team.
Enjoy!
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The Archon Files
“You’d think, after everything I’d seen, I’d have expected something like that. Right? But Jump #12? I did not see that one coming.”
—Astra Cross-Reality Debrief Session, 21.8
Leaving Archon Reality

DSA Field Report: Agent Smith
I hate you, boss. And not just because of last Christmas’ Secret team. Accounting for Hollywood license, the show’s episodes are
Santa gift. I could count the ways, but I’ll skip right to your latest our Sentinels’ history.
sin against me, which was agreeing with whatever Washington (And now I know way too much about a bunch of cape’s personal
bureaucrat thought this was a loose end we should tie up. Tying up lives, boss. Thanks for that.)
a loose end means tugging on it. This is one string we don’t want And getting here is too easy. All it took was a willing gate-jumper
to tug on, boss. and a loaned artifact Astra brought home from her trip. See
To recap for the benefit of whomever else is cleared to read this attached file, but yeah, the “artifact” is a custom-made My Little
and unlucky enough to need to, here’s the situation. Pony Maxima. It’s really very clever; purple mane and tail, gold
Last year a simple mousetrap set up to catch a superhuman chrome hide, and a MUSHROOM SHAPED CLOUD cutie mark on
serial killer catapulted America’s favorite super-girl, Astra, off into its flank! The Little Pony of Doom provided the link for the gate,
another reality. In the course of finding her way home while we held and here I am.
the door open for her (read up on Operation Odysseus, I dare you), The Little Pony of Doom really sums this place up.
she visited a bunch of other extrarealities. Among other places Our team has been here for three months, we’ve made the
she visited were two worlds that played out what-ifs in her own message-drop handshake for gate confirmation six times, and I’m
history, Santa’s workshop at the North Pole, the fairy wood from recommending we pull out on the seventh and don’t come back.
Shakespeare’s famous play (where Oberon got what he deserved), Ever.
and two worlds with very different kinds of superheroes in them. Why? In a nutshell, the power gap between our realities is just
And in one of those worlds, we’re fictional. too great. To use a geopolitical analogy, we’re Australia and Archon
That’s right. Fictional. In what we’ve labeled the Archon Reality, Reality is the United States. Astra didn’t see it during her brief visit,
the Chicago Sentinels feature in a new TV series. Not like our except for her observation that Maxima is “scary strong,” but when
Sentinels, the TV show that’s a cape-procedural loosely based on someone like Astra calls someone else “scary strong” that means
the real-world capes. This Sentinels is true to life in almost every something. And as impressive as Maxima herself is (she’s at least an
detail. The actress who plays Astra is a Hope Corrigan look-alike Ultra Class Atlas-Type with Projector-Type powers), it gets much
and all the rest could be body doubles of Chicago’s principle super- worse. This report includes three thousand pages of measured
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The Archon Files
observations, interviews, and suppositions, but to summarize
here’s what we know for sure.
This reality’s public has only recently been informed of the
existence of superhuman beings (supers). They’ve also been told
that the governments of the world have known about supers for
much longer. Apparently supers have always been around in this
reality. Always. The story goes that, many thousand years BCE,
Og the Caveman seriously startled a mammoth and launched the
super-strong demigod archetype threaded throughout most world
religions. Here Zeus was probably just a super who could throw
lightning bolts.
How do powers work? One in every few thousand people are
born with some kind of superhuman ability, which usually emerges
around puberty. Most of these abilities are trivial. How useful is
simple immunity to electric shock or a digestive system that can
handle anything? A lot of them are probably never even noticed,
history then no government conspiracy of secrecy could have ever
although lots of the really pretty people in history probably had
effectively hidden them. Not for long and not globally. Something
at least a trivial power. (That’s pure supposition, but see the Super
else had to be at work. It took us surprisingly little time to find the
Non-Power Characteristics file.)
Something Else, but only because one of the capes on our scouting
A small percentage of superhumans manifest powers more in
team is immune to the Veil. That put us on to Archon Reality’s true
line with myths, folklore, and of course superhero comics. There
secret history.
are also more and stronger power manifestations now than there
It’s a doozy.
used to be, in part because there are just lots more people around
In Archon Reality, the supernatural is real. I can’t speak for the
than there used to be, but since more superhumans per capita
reality of gods and stuff here, but the more “mundane” supernatural
are appearing in industrially developed societies there may be
stuff is everywhere. Vampires, werewolves, fey of all kinds, and
environmental factors at work as well.
magic. These aren’t delusional supers; there are discoverable Laws
Which is where the governments of the world come in. In the
of Magic here and it’s an alternate technology-path that can be
US here, the government has been secretly aware of supers at
followed by anybody, not just people with a special gift although
least since the early 1800’s. President Lincoln formed a secret
I’m told innate gifts make it easier. Now, you’d think that all of
commission, the Atypical Resources Commission, under the newly
these supernaturals and “extra-humans” (humans gifted with
created Secret Service, to keep track of supers, recruit them where
supernatural powers) would be even harder to hide as humanity’s
possible, and quietly “take care of” supers who use their powers
numbers increased. And you’d be right, but several thousand
criminally in ways that can’t be detected or handled by normal law
years ago they did something about it. They got organized. The
enforcement. ARC subsequently worked with the US military, the
current incarnation of that organization is the Twilight Council,
FBI, and the CIA to deploy supers covertly. We can only imagine
and their mages got together and created a huge, world spanning
that other governments did the same.
enchantment called the Veil.
Very recently, the Atypical Resource Commission was reformed
The Veil is straight-up global mind control. It pushes every
into a separate intelligence and law enforcement branch of
person on Earth to believe that the supernatural isn’t real. I’m fuzzy
the federal government, Archon. It staged a very public press
on the details here; religious and magical beliefs are still pretty
conference where it introduced Maxima and other members of
common, the Veil doesn’t amp people’s natural skepticism, it keeps
the new Arc-SWAT (Super Weapons and Tactics) team. The public
everyone susceptible to it from seeing the supernatural when it’s
video file is included here. Going forward, official “superheroes” –
right in front of them. Yup, anyone under the Veil will usually dismiss
as opposed to costumed superhuman vigilantes – are government
every evidence of the supernatural up to and including what their
agents. As far as the public is concerned, it’s a simple story; a
eyes tell them. Under the Veil someone who sees an unmistakably
government conspiracy hid the truth from the public, but now
supernatural creature will ignore, forget, dismiss, or rationalize it
the Powers That Be made a grand unveiling of everything and will
away unless deep and convincing trauma burns it into their mind.
proceed with the utmost transparency.
You remember the dude who changed into a wolf and tried to rip
Yeah…
your throat out. But to everyone who didn’t experience the attack
Except anybody with any sense of history knows it can’t be that
– or who only saw the fully transformed wolf – it was a rabid dog
simple. If superhumans really were present throughout human
attack. You get the idea.
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The Archon Files
There are limits to the Veil, though. Bizarre mass murders or And it gets weirder because there’s another true secret history.
obviously unnatural large-scale catastrophes can break it and Three words for you, boss: Men. In. Black. Not a bad movie
once broken for a person it’s broken. So the Twilight Council franchise, but would you want to live in their universe? Well, Archon
ruthlessly polices its own. Semper Vigilantis (the Ever Vigilant) are Reality Is. That. Universe. Forget about the Firmi Paradox; here the
pretty much the supernatural world’s police, judges, juries, and Milky Way is positively crawling with life, every kind of life, including
executioners. Apparently a few wars of secret genocide have also lots of life that Spock called Life But Not as We Know It. Also, tons
been waged against supernatural species that couldn’t or wouldn’t of intelligent races are more technologically advanced than we are,
be subtle enough to preserve the Veil’s coverage. so there are lots of Class II Kardashev Scale civilizations swanning
Until their unveiling, superhumans were partly covered by the Veil about out there at faster-than-light speeds when they’re not just
as well; apparently it varied, but the more paranormal their powers straight-up jumping interstellar distances.
looked, the more the Veil hid them. But stuff was starting to seep Our information is still spotty, but it looks like there’s a
through. Science fiction and folk science was beginning to offer loose treaty structure out there enforced by a few collectives
non-supernatural explanations for fantastic powers. The modern organized enough to have a kind of Star Fleet manned by allied
media was preserving and disseminating more visual evidence. So races. Normally they leave pre-interstellar races strictly alone,
the US government decided to lead the way with a Superhuman even quarantine them from outside contact. Archon Reality’s
Unveiling. This broke the Veil for superhumans, but the public is still Earth? Not so much. They count Earth’s magical community as
unaware of the reality of the supernatural. This state of affairs will sufficiently advanced, which means there’s contact between the
probably continue for the foreseeable future. Our interviewee says ETs and the supernaturals. That means Earth is open to quiet
the Twilight Council fears a genocidal struggle and civilizational visitors and since opportunities to visit “primitive” worlds like Earth
collapse if the supernatural races of the world are revealed to the are rare, there’s a thriving underground interstellar-tourism and
public all at once. They’re probably right. expatriate settlement industry. The world’s modern governments,
So, here’s the first big power gap, boss. They possess magic as they’ve become aware of it, have taken the MiB approach to
capable of worldwide mind control. And apparently their mastery of extraterrestrial relations; helping to keep the secret while policing
magic periodically spits out artifacts so dangerous and nasty that the ET population, probably in return for incremental technology
somewhere there’s a vault full of Things That Man Was Not Meant transfers of their own.
to Use. Leaving their magic aside, just think about individual groups So let’s sum up. On Reality Prime we have our superhumans, our
or species. Look at vampires, the extra-living (political correctness breakthroughs, lots more of them than Archon Reality has supers.
at its finest). In our world they’re deluded breakthroughs who can’t But it looks like the strongest supers in Archon Reality can more
normally reproduce themselves. In Archon Reality any vampire than match the strongest of ours. Also on Archon Reality they have:
can make more baby vampires. They cull their numbers ruthlessly an Earth crawling with supernatural creatures and races, some of
so the others don’t do it for them, but imagine just one of their which reproduce more like plagues than species; a science of magic
vampires getting into our world. Instant vampire plague. Same for with its own technologies; a universe full of civilizations that could
were-species. We’d have no defense against any of this. scrape ours off of Earth’s crust without blinking. And some of those
civilizations are not nice at all, even by our pre-modern standards.
This is what I mean by an Australia-US power gap.
Maybe their magic-tech and superscience won’t work on Reality
Prime. We need to take careful steps to find out. The simplest
method is to get hold of one or two superscience and enchanted
trinkets and bring them home to see if they work.
And if they do, then we need to do everything we can to wedge
the door shut. Because any interaction from their reality to ours is
likely to wind up about as fun for us as Europe’s discovery of the
Western Hemisphere was for its aboriginal inhabitants.
If their stuff doesn’t work here? Then we’re reasonably safe, at
least from their aliens, demons, and vampires. Archon Reality goes
from being a scary-ass existential threat to our continued existence
to an interesting place to visit. Carefully.
It’s not like they don’t already have lots of tourists.
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The Archon Files
Superheroing in The Archon Reality

A group wishing to play an Archon campaign is at liberty to use just
about any Origin Story imaginable. Archon Reality’s superhuman
history goes way back, and in addition to the straight-up “super”
origin for superheroes (Sydney and others have speculated on
what’s been creating random superhumans and the conclusion is:
“It’s not genetic mutation.”), Archon Reality also boasts magic,
psionics, aliens, supernatural creatures, and superscience. This is
what’s known as the Fantasy Kitchen Sink approach. To quote TV
Tropes, not only are there supers, there are “ghosts, Vampires,
werewolves, mummies, zombies, aliens, time travelers, espers,
angels, demons, gods, Eldritch Abominations, Precursors, magic,
and so on.”
Archon Reality’s Earth – and universe – is a very crowded place,
in which humanity may not be the top dog even on its homeworld,
yet it’s a Wainscot Society, at least at the start of the comic. On the
surface, for the most part it’s simply the Real World as We Know
It and all the weirdness up until now has been hidden by multiple
conspiracies. As described in Agent Smith’s field report, beneath
the surface it’s a very different place, but player-character origins
can be as mundane or exotic as the player wants. can be supers and they deal with other supers, aliens, vampires,
The campaign can also resemble the stereotypical superhero sorcerers, and the occasional elder god.
campaign…or not. Based on the evidence of Halo’s experiences, Such adventures need not be limited to Earth, either; so far
the weirdness is everywhere and normal people just haven’t seen it Arc-SWAT has visited one other world (most of the team briefly,
yet, so the GM is welcome to throw anything in. Nightclubs are hot- Halo for a more protracted and “exciting” adventure). And while
spots for partying aliens as well as decent employers for expatriate Semper Vigilantis prefers to handle supernatural threats on its
ETs. They’re also good places for succubae to top up their tanks. own, its main concern is maintaining secrecy, whereas Arc-SWAT
So far there have been two “unveilings”; supers of course, and has demonstrated the kind of superhuman “firepower” it can bring
in recent comics actual First Contact. An Arc-SWAT campaign is to a problem, making it likelier that they’ll be called in the next time
perfectly positioned in the center of things, and the players can a lich-king tries to take over Nebraska.
dip their toes into the superhuman world, the supernatural world,
and alien worlds. Imagine a Men in Black campaign where the PCs
Normality? Or Realism?
It may seem odd to talk about realism in a superhero setting, but Dave’s In Grrl Power, David is slowly working out the effects of the
Archon Reality actually does a good job of portraying social realism. superhuman unveiling and now open contact with members of
Most superhero comic series default to the Wainscot Society no matter extra-terrestrial civilizations. Nations are already scrambling
what epically averted apocalypse (alien invasions, supervillain takeovers, for access to the alien tech, and learning how to deal with open
meddling gods, etc.) goes down. Publicly. With lots of property damage extee-tourism (and the ETs are learning how to deal with Earth’s
and high body counts. If this stuff happened in the Real World, society superhumans, it’s a mutual learning curve). I fully expect Dave
would be obviously and irrevocably changed. Survive one alien invasion, to start introducing Archon to the problems created by an
and we’d form a World Federation with every developed nation putting underground market trading cheap blasters for Terran spices
huge chunks of budget into our new Unified Space Force. Survive one or something. When it turns out that nutmeg gives at least one
brush with a Doomsday Elder God Cult, and a new Inquisition would extee race a wonderful and highly addictive high. And don’t get
be formed to hunt down cultists and do everything possible to destroy me started on the gurus that arrive on Earth to spread galactic
the knowledge needed to summon Elder Gods. (Hopefully the New wisdom (and possibly teach a bunch of potential human psis to
Inquisitors would use proper investigative and policing techniques, but unlock that potential through meditation and krill-stones).
mere possession of a Dark Grimoire could mean life in prison or a death Fun times, and the world will never be the same.
sentence.)
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The Archon Files
Archon Campaign Dial Settings & Rules

Grrl Power gets pretty epic. The supers face threats that heavily
armed special-ops teams would have a hard time dealing with, and
Power Scale (FC p. 52, SPF p.4, 11-12)
Archon supers run from Usefully Powered to Oh My God. David’s
that’s before insane blood-mages and alien slavers get involved.
Cast Description page provides each character with a 1-10 star
While many Arc-SWAT team members possess relatively “minor”
rated Power Level with descriptive names, but his Power Levels
powers, it’s doubtful that players will want to play support or
don’t quite match up to the Fate Power Scale (the first three levels
second-string heroes (although that might make for an interestingly
are all degrees of Normal Human effectiveness that map over to
different campaign). A Grrl Power campaign best reflects the comic
the +1 to +5 Skill Pyramid). However, translating into Power Scale
if the PCs are built for epic play, so the following “dial-settings” and
(and adding a couple of new level names) gives us:
rules are suggested.
PS0: Normal Human. Peggy.
Aspects (FC p. 4-5) PS1: Super. ?
The heroes here use the 5-Aspect character design, with a slight PS2: Mega. Achilles, Anvil, Harem*, Heatwave.
departure from the generic format. They have a Power Aspect, PS3: Ultra. Halo, Mr. Amorphous, Jiggawat, Stalwart.
which names the power fleshed out in their file’s Abilities section, PS4: Paragon. Dabbler, Hiro, Math.
a Hero Aspect, which describes their heroic type in some way, a PS5: Meta. ?
Trouble Aspect as normal, and two Background Aspects (Free PS6: Penumbrate. Maxima.
Aspects).
Contests and Power Scale: In any Contest between matching
Note: Super-Powered Fate delves extensively into how best to
or canceling powers or Power Skills (Physique vs. Physique or
use Power Aspects. It’s not required for The Archon Files, but is
Athletics vs. Shoot, for examples), the higher-scale power will win
suggested.
automatically unless some form of created Advantage balances
the scales.
Skills (FC p.6-9)
The Archon heroes represent an exceptionally powerful or skilled
bunch of individuals, so the Skill Pyramid gives each one +5 Skill,
two +4 Skills, three +3 Skills, four +2 Skills, and five +1 Skills. All
Skills in the default Skill List are used. In most cases the named Skills
are directly associated with their powers. This is especially true for
Will with Halo, Heatwave, and Varia’s powers; Will defines their
power-strength more than their ability to focus their attention or
resist that fifth slice of pizza (not that supers really need to pay
attention to their calorie-intake).
Resources
Since all Archon super-agents make serious bank (supply and
demand is on their side), and Archon itself has the deep pockets of
a federal defense agency, the Resources Skill is assigned as a Group
Skill (Great (+4) Resources), outside of their Skill Pyramid.
Refresh and Stunts (FC p.10)

The Archon heroes all receive 5 Refresh and 5 Stunt Slots. Some
of them also get additional Refresh, +1 Refresh per level of Power
Scale lower than the campaign default level of Power Scale 3 (see
right).
Stress (FC p.12)

In keeping with the epic nature of the setting, characters will
receive more default Stress. Minimum Stress boxes for PCs is 5, plus
the normal Stress boxes for higher Physique/Will ratings.
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The Archon Files
Collateral Consequences & Stun Damage Stun Damage
(SPF p.4, or Fate Toolkit p.61) For those who don’t have Super-Powered Fate or
“If you do have to shoot at someone…before you fire look behind them. Wearing the Cape: The Roleplaying Game, Stun
Assume you’ll miss them and hit that.” —Maxima Attack is a Stunt. It can also serve as a campaign
Surprisingly given its level of humor, Grrl Power tends towards “combat realism.” background rule in more cinematic superhero
settings.
People can get hurt, even supers (Arc-SWAT’s field uniform suppliers work with
Stun Attack. Your Attack deals shifts of harm
bulletproof (excuse me, bullet resistant) materials for that reason), and bystanders
as normal, but will treat each Consequence slot
are a paramount concern. Stun Damage can be used by supers capable of “pulling
as if it were a Mild Consequence. Each slot will
their punches” or possessing powers that can incapacitate without injury, but take only 2 shifts to fill, and this means a PC can
bullets make holes, power-blasts burn, etc. Collateral Consequences should be be Taken Out much more easily. However, the
applied mercilessly as often as the PCs get sloppy. result of being Taken Out with a Stun Attack
Expanding on the Collateral Consequences Rule, the GM can also rule that can’t be more serious than a knockout, and
Stun-inflicted Consequences are all treated
damage from a Zone Attack, if it’s on a superhuman scale, is inflicted on the Zone
as Mild Consequences for Recovery (FC p.38).
itself as well.
If Taken Out, a stunned character will be able
to be revived (Recovery), and act in the next
scene. However, all of his Consequence Slots will
remain filled until the end of the next full scene,
as normal. So he’s still not 100%, be careful!
Fists vs. Bullets & Pointy Things
It’s perfectly reasonable for groups to split the
difference, here. In a brawl or MMA fight, fists and
chokeholds might naturally do only Stun Damage
(this could apply equally to superstrong supers
fighting each other). The GM might allow PCs to
move back and forth between Stun Damage and
normal damage depending on the narrative, in which
case Stun Attack will be a “free Stunt” unless it
includes some other benefit like the ability to ignore
Armor Ratings. Additionally, damage from sources
with a lower PS rating than the hero might be inflicted
as Stun Damage.
Setting Aspects (FC p.27) WtC:RPG Attributes Conversion

If you’re using Setting Aspects in your Archon campaign, some WtC:RPG distinguishes between Attributes (Alertness, Athleti-
superhero-genre Aspects might be fun. However, be aware that cism, Physique, Discernment, Willpower, Presence) and the rest of
half of the Grrl Power comic’s humor comes from deconstructing the Skill list, with high Attributes giving bonuses to Actions with
or subverting the most common comic-book tropes. For example, related Skills. The Archon characters are built with the standard
there is no Costume Invulnerability (better use sturdy materials Fate Skill List to make them compatible with other Fate games, but
because they will take a beating), no Impenetrable Secret for “crossovers” GMs can easily apply an Attribute Bonus Rule to
Identity – and no, domino masks (or glasses) won’t obscure level the field with WtC:RPG characters.
anyone’s appearance enough to fool anybody – no Ignored by The Attribute Bonus Rule: Skills that can be defined as attributes
Law or The Law is Useless (the whole point of Archon is to not (from the Fate Skill List, Athletics, Empathy, Notice, Physique,
ignore superhumans breaking the law, whether they’re villains or Rapport, Will) will give a +1Attribute Bonus (or Weapon:2 or
vigilantes, and it’s very good at it). Armor:1) for every 2 rating steps above Average (Good, Superb,
Two suggested Setting Aspects highlighting Grrl Power’s humor- etc.), applicable to Actions taken with Skills that can benefit from
ously deconstructive approach might be Reality Strikes and You the high attribute. Only one Attribute Bonus and one Weapon/
Tried to Do What? Both or either can be especially useful to the Armor Bonus can be applied to an Action. For example, an Archon
GM for Compels when the players do something that always works hero with Superb (+5) Athleticism could use his +2 Attribute Bonus
in the comics. to Attack with Fight, and his Weapon:2 for his Good (+3) Physique if
Note: The Veil will be a Setting Aspect on Earth, applicable to all he succeeds! When Defending against physical and mental Attacks,
characters not let in on the truth about the supernatural. Physique and Will generally provide their Armor Bonus.
9
The Archon Files
Agents of Archon
Lt. Colonel Maxima ~ Maximillia Leander
Skills
Superb (+5) Physique
Power Level Penumbrate
Great (+4) Athletics, Fight
Good (+3) Shoot, Provoke, Will
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Academics, Contacts, Investigate, Notice
Golden Goddess of Boom Average (+1) Deceive, Drive, Empathy, Rapport, Stealth
Hero Aspect
Military Hero
Stunts / Extras
Power Scale 1–6 (see below). (0)
Trouble Aspect Dialable Powers. Maxima’s Strength, Toughness, Speed, Flight, and Blast powers default
Not a Great People Person to PS 3 across the board, but she can raise any power by one or more PS ratings by dropping
one or more powers by the same PS rating levels (minimum 1 PS). She can focus to boost a
Background Aspect single power as high as PS6, the reason she’s classed as a Penumbrate. Changing her settings
requires an Overcome Action with Will, Difficulty Rating equal to the number of PS ratings
Knows to Call the Right Shots
she moves around at once. Maxima tends to keep her dials at PS5 Toughness, PS4 Speed,
PS3 Strength, PS2 Flight, and PS1 Blast as her default settings, since this makes her tougher
Background Aspect than anyone but Achilles and a full-blown speedster. (4)
Instant Aura of Doom Superhuman Recovery. Maxima spend may 1 Fate Point to recover from all Physical Stress
taken during a Scene.
Stress & Consequences Hard as Nails. Maxima automatically succeeds at her Recovery Action for Physical
Consequences short of Extreme, and gets a +2 bonus to recover from Extreme Consequences.
Physical Stress Also, once per Session she may change a Severe Physical Consequence to a Moderate
Physical Consequence (if the Consequence Slot is available), or treat a Moderate Physical
Consequence as a Mild Physical Consequence when Recovering.
Fast Work. Dividing as evenly as possible, Maxima can split her shifts with a Skill between
as many separate Actions or targets as she wishes, up to her current Speed Scale Rating. She
Mental Stress gets a +1 bonus to each Action or target, but must declare all her targets/Actions before
rolling the dice.
Consequences
2
4
6
(Physical Only)
2
4
Team Resources +4
Refresh 3
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The Archon Files
Profile
Abilities When the ARC decided to create Archon and Arc-SWAT,
Maxima is the classical Flying Brick: she is superhumanly strong, General Faulk tapped her to lead the government superteam.
tough, fast, and capable of flight. She is also a projector, capable While skeptical of the new service branch, she reported as
of firing energy blasts from her hands of controlled intensity. ordered.
She is also host to what is probably an alien symbiote that covers
Appearance and Personality
her body and gives her a power reserve she can tap to boost one
Maxima would stand out just for her Amazonian physique;
or more of her powers to higher levels of performance. She can
being a gold chrome goddess makes blending in impossible.
spread the boost out, or focus it on a single facet of her power
Her interpersonal skills are a bit “rough-edged”. This is partly
for maximum effect. Between her innate superhuman power
because she learned to project intimidation as a defense against
and the symbiote’s boost, Maxima may well be the single most
curiosity and unwanted male attention, but the military disci-
physically powerful super on the planet. She is classified as a
pline doesn’t encourage the touchy feelies anyway. When Peggy
Penumbrate Level super and may be higher.
was going through rehab and retraining with her new prosthetic
History leg, Maxima’s advise was to “walk it off.” It was a joke, but
Lt. Colonel Maximillia Leander is “Maxima” to the public, Max totally Max. On the plus side, she can project intimidation so
to her friends (sometimes also to her teammates when she’s powerfully as to create an Aura of Doom with a mere glance.
not trying to establish at least some military discipline), and As a leader, Maxima is aware she’s leading a mixed team of
the Goddess of Boom. Most supers present their potential in military professionals and former civilians. Arc-SWAT isn’t an
their first decade, but some don’t present into adulthood; their elite military team whose members trained and competed
powers require a triggering event. Max’s was particularly weird. fanatically to join, which means that her leadership style needs
Thirteen years old and on a summer vacation visit to a museum, to bend a bit for those who aren’t gung-ho soldiers. She has
she picked up a geode in the “Split Your Own Geode for $15” bin. more patience for Halo than she does for Harem or Dabbler.
Okay, it wasn’t a radioactive spider, but it split on its own and Sydney aggravates her just as much sometimes, but she knows
doused her with geode water, Enhydro agates, water trapped in the new recruit’s trying and isn’t deliberately pulling her chain.
the rock millions of years ago (yes this is a real thing; I looked
it up). The water in this “geode” contained something besides
minerals. It colonized her epidermis, transforming her skin into
a layer of chrome-smooth golden substance (except for her lips,
which it turned apple red for some reason). It also turned her
hair purple, her blood blue, and sharpened her ears to points
(again who knows why). It’s impossible to tell to what degree
Maxima owes her powers directly to the symbiote and how
much was innate and simply triggered, but her physique does
point to her being a superhuman in herself.
Maxima’s powers emerged smoothly after her transformation,
over the course of her teen years. Her track career ended when
she could run faster than any animal on earth and she kept
getting faster. Her emergent strength – and traumatically
emergent energy projection powers – caused some frighten-
ingly close calls. Maxima’s plan had been to become an Air Force
pilot (she joined her high school’s JROTC program and once
enlisted took night courses to fill the college requirement for
officers). The ARC approached her in high school and negotiated
her enlistment in the US Army. Serving in Afghanistan, Maxima
was assigned to a tight unit dedicated to “quietly” dealing with
superhuman threats in combat zones. Her last tour took her to
Iraq, where she met Lieutenant Peggy Kessler when she lifted a
flipped helicopter off her. Injured herself shortly thereafter, she
and Peggy got to know each other during recovery and became
good friends.
11
2: The Cast
Major Super Hiro ~ Hiro Nakamura

Skills
Power Level Paragon
Great (+4) Athletics, Fight
Good (+3) Drive, Rapport, Shoot
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Academics, Investigate, Notice, Will
Flying Brick with Something Average (+1) Contacts, Deceive, Empathy, Provoke, Stealth
Extra
Hero Aspect Stunts / Extras

Obviously a SUPER Hero Power Scale 4. (1). When Hiro does anything with his powers (superhuman strength,
toughness, flight, sonic absorption-redirection), he acts at PS4.
Trouble Aspect Superhuman Recovery. Hiro may spend 1 Fate Point to recover from all Physical Stress
Prone to half-to-full monty taken during a Scene.
wardrobe destruction.
Hard as Nails. Hiro automatically succeeds at his Recovery Action for Physical Consequences
short of Extreme, and gets a +2 bonus to recover from Extreme Consequences. Also, once per
Background Aspect Session he may change a Severe Physical Consequence to a Moderate Physical Consequence
Humble Hero (if the Consequence Slot is available), or treat a Moderate Physical Consequence as a Mild
Physical Consequence when Recovering.
Background Aspect
Sonic Capacitor. Hiro can absorb and redirect sonic attacks. When hit with a sonic
Creative Scrapper power (whether as an Overcome, Create an Advantage, or Attack Action), if he Defends
successfully he can redirect the force of the Attack back – in which case his attacker has no
defense other than Armor – or at another target which must treat Hiro’s Defend result as
Stress & Consequences an Attack!
Physical Stress The Hiro Effect. Hiro gains a +2 to Actions involving Rapport with anyone of the
appropriate sexual preference who is at all susceptible to friendly and respectful charm (i.e.,
most females in any given room).
Mental Stress
Consequences
2
4
6
(Physical Only)
2
Team Resources +4
Refresh 5
12
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities Heatwave have a lot in common). Hiro’s powers began emerging
Super Hiro presents as a stereotypical “flying brick”: superhuman when he was eight, and upon graduating high school he let the
strength and toughness, plus flight. He’s the third-strongest Army recruiters know what he could do. After college he met
super on the team (Stalwart holds the second spot, and Hiro Maxima during his first deployment, and when she approached
keeps trying to claim it from him). Strangely, Hiro possesses a him about joining Archon when the group was being formed,
non-related secondary power; he can absorb vibrational (sound) Hiro decided the ranch would always be there but his country
energy and redirect it. Since getting attacked by weaponized needed his super abilities.
sound is a rare occurrence (it’s happened to him in the field Promoted to major, Hiro is Arc-SWAT’s second-in-command
only once), the power hasn’t been studied much and even Hiro but it’s a brass-heavy unit (mostly so its officers will have
doesn’t know if he can store the energy or do anything else with seniority over field personnel in the other armed forces), and
it. Unlike Maxima, his invulnerability doesn’t extend to cover he functions mostly as Maxima’s 1st looie. Hiro has no problem
his clothing at all, with embarrassing results when he takes a serving under Maxima – and will get uncharacteristically harsh
hit that would leave an unpowered human in need of forensic on anyone who hints he serves under his team leader. If Arc-
identification and it destroys just his uniform. Harem always SWAT divides into two field units (a real possibility as it slowly
gets pictures. continues to grow), he would certainly step up into the new
senior field officer slot.
History
Hiro Nakamura’s family is 5th-generation Japanese American, Appearance and Personality
living in Hawaii. His great-grandfather fought in WWII (served The vast majority of supers look like they could be bodybuilders
with distinction in the US Army’s 100th Infantry Battalion) and or supermodels, and Hiro stands out even in that crowd. Add
the men of the family traditionally join the ROTC in college and to that his easy charm and affable manners, and the ability to
serve a tour upon graduation before returning home to work raise women’s temperatures just by giving them his attention
the family ranch (Hawaii has some big cattle ranches and he and may be a tertiary superpower. Hiro is far from stupid but he
acts unaware of the Hiro Effect. Part of it may be his genuine
humility – he’s actively embarrassed by the punning boast of his
codename – but he treats all women with proper and somewhat
old-fashioned courtesy.
Easygoing and with nothing to prove (outside his friendly
competition with Stalwart), Hiro is well regarded by most
everyone on the team, his professional geniality a balance for
Maxima’s spikiness. Arianna angles hard for Super Hiro to get
assigned regular PR appearances – and has to fight Maxima for
him since that “takes him away from training.”
13
2: The Cast
2nd Lieutenant Mr. Amorphous ~ Gary Gleeson

Power Level Ultra Skills
Power Aspect Great (+4) Athletics, Shoot (Throw)
Rubber-Man Good (+3) Fight, Notice, Will
Fair (+2) Burglary, Contacts, Investigate, Stealth
Hero Aspect Average (+1) Academics, Drive, Deceive, Provoke, Rapport
Handy Hero
Trouble Aspect Stunts / Extras

Not a deep thinker Power Scale 3. (0). When Mr. Amorphous performs an Action involving his stretchy
rubber-body powers, he acts with PS3. This includes Recovery.
Background Aspect Long Arm of The Law. Mr. Amorphous can perform Actions in adjacent zones as if they
Trained First-Responder were his own.
“I’m rubber, you’re glue!” Mr. Amorphous defends against blunt-force attacks (fists, bats,
Background Aspect bullets, etc.) with his Physique rather than his Fight Skill, even if he can’t move or doesn’t
“I’m the long arm of the law!” see the hit coming.
Protective Hug. Mr. Amorphous can choose to protect another target by interposing
some or all of his rubber body in the way (he brings new meaning to the term “full-body
Stress & Consequences hug”). If he does, the attack is purely against him. If he fails, he will be the one to take shifts
Physical Stress of harm.
Hogtie Body Lock. Nobody can put someone in a restraining hold like Mr. Amorphous.
Once he successfully puts someone in a Hogtie Hold (Create an Advantage with Fight), to
break the hold they must Overcome his Physique (and they need to break the hold before
they can perform any other physical Action). Note: he can maintain two hogtie holds at
Mental Stress once, one with each arm.
Legging It. Due to Mr. Amorphous’ ability to really stretch his legs, he can move 2 zones for
free as a part of his move rather than 1 zone. Heights are no problem; he can easily “step up”
onto lower buildings, swing up onto higher ones.
Consequences
2
4
6
(Physical Only)
2
Team Resources +4
Refresh 5
14
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities In combat, Mr. Amorphous can throw a punch a good distance
Mr. Amorphous is almost the traditional rubber-hero. He can – and prefers to swing away aggressively rather than clinch; after
control his size and density to a degree, as well as stretch all, once you’ve wrapped somebody up, then what? Hold onto
and reshape his body quite a bit. His malleable body has great them until the bigger fight’s over? If he’s fighting alongside Hiro
tensile strength, giving him superhuman strength and making or Stalwart then he’ll entangle strong opponents so the others
him extremely resistance to blunt-force damage generally and can more easily pound on them.
even extremes of heat and cold. Chemical and biological attacks
History
might be more effective (his biochemistry is standard human),
Gary Gleeson knew he was supposed to be a hero. He had
but his “rubber” body is resistant to most kinds of damage he
the power, obviously, and with great power came great
encounters in the field and heals superhumanly fast as well;
responsibility and all that. So he became a firefighter, and he
not instant regeneration, but what takes normal people weeks
was a good one (his buddies called him Ladder One). Gary met
takes Mr. Amorphous days.
Harold (Achilles) when he found him trapped in a car fire – the
dude had half-wrapped it around a tree. Hollywood movie
tropes notwithstanding, most car wrecks don’t burst into flame.
This one did, and Harold’s clothes had burned off and his shoes
had melted by the time Harold’s team leveraged him out, but of
course he wasn’t scratched. Gary met Brook at another fire, one
that suddenly went out while she stood there and glowed. Since
they were the only other superhumans they knew, the three of
them started hanging out.
It was Harold’s idea to found a superhero team, but his
enthusiasm sold Gary and Brook on the idea (there may have
been alcohol involved), so they picked their codenames and
became Triad – then had a real problem finding supervillains
(or even normal villains) to fight. Hilarity ensued, and before
too long Archon showed up with a stick and a carrot. The stick
was jailtime for breaking and entering, battery, destruction of
property, etc. The carrot was joining a “real” team. It was a no-
brainer.

Gary is seriously buff – typical super physique to start with –
with square, heavy features. Hanging with Arc-SWAT now, he
likes to show off his rubber power by reaching for things. He’s
easygoing, serious about doing good but not a deep thinker, a
follower rather than a leader. He and Brook have each other,
Harold makes him laugh, and life is good.
15
2: The Cast
1st Lieutenant Peggy Kessler

Power Level Normal Human Skills
Superb (+5) Shoot
Power Aspect Great (+4) Athletics, Drive/Pilot
Top Marksman Good (+3) Fight, Physique, Will
Fair (+2) Academics, Empathy, Stealth, Notice
Hero Aspect Average (+1) Deceive, Engineering, Investigate, Provoke, Rapport
“Do I Look like a cape?”
Trouble Aspect Stunts / Extras

A Normal Among Supers Power Scale 0. (+3 Fate Points.)
Knows the Whole Arsenal. Peggy can spend an FP to declare herself Fully Trained
Background Aspect with any modern field weapon she needs to use, allowing her to use it. When she Invokes
Military Jack-of-All-Trades that knowledge, she gets a +3 rather than a +2.
High Situational Awareness. Peggy gets a +2 to Defend with Athletics when dodging,
Background Aspect or Notice when countering someone’s attempt at Stealth or attempts to create ambush/
“Trouble? Nah, you should’a surprise conditions.
seen Afghanistan.”
In the Zone. Peggy gets a +2 to Create an Advantage with Will when she focuses to
create the Zoned In Situation Aspect. The Aspect represents her trained ability to focus on
objectives/targets and tune out distractions.
Stress & Consequences
Peggy Shoots Golden BBs. Peggy gets a +2 to her Shoot Skill when attempting to
Physical Stress
shoot a target using Overcome or Create an Advantage (when striking vulnerable points to
incapacitate a vehicle, for example).
L115A1 LRR Sniper Rifle. (Gear Aspect). +2 to Attack with Shoot. Her rifle’s ammunition
is armor piercing; ignore 2 Armor Rating (FC p.58) or rank the weapon as PS2 for purposes
of Scale Rule (FC p.52) Option 2 (+2 per level of difference to the result after the roll, if the
Mental Stress
roll succeeds). (2)
(Note: As an unpowered human who finds herself sharing the field with Gods of Battle,
Peggy relies upon her skills, equipment, and deep pool of Fate Points to survive.)
Consequences
2
4
6
Team Resources +4
Refresh 7
16
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities History
Peggy Kessler is a world-class marksman. She is beyond capable First Lieutenant Peggy Kessler grew up in rural Tennessee,
with both handguns and long guns, but with a sniper rifle her where her father was a pilot who flew crop-dusters and
ability borders on supernatural. Peggy’s rifles of choice are the firefighting planes. Peggy learned how to hunt from a young
British L115A1 Long Range Rifle, an AWM configured for .338 age and took that skill with her into the Army. After basic and
Lapua Magnum (8.6 x 70mm), also known as the Arctic Warfare her first tour, she completed Fort Benning’s advanced snipers
Super Magnum (AWSM). She also uses the Barrett XM500, a training program with the highest rating in her “class.” Sent to
bullpup version of the venerated Barrett M107 .50 cal., for Afghanistan, Corporal Kessler served as a unit sniper in forward
when the situation calls for power over the extreme accuracy bases holding down unsecure zones. Much of her mission
the AWSM. consisted of scouting and taking out enemies seeking to
infiltrate to plant IEDs or take up their own sniping positions. On
completion of the tour, Peggy entered the Army’s Initial Entry
Rotary Wing Training program at Fort Rucker. Returning to
Afghanistan, she flew insertion and extraction missions, which
is where she met Maxima halfway through her tour.
Their first meeting was at a non-regulation beer party. Their
second meeting was during Peggy’s last mission; a FUBAR’d
extraction mission. Bad intelligence dropped their squads into
a zone covered by Taliban in prepared conditions, and Peggy’s
air-cavalry platoon deployed to “pacify the LZ” and get their
people out. Peggy defended her piece of the LZ from a hastily
dug nest and they were winning – until they met the Taliban
super. Details of the battle are classified, but the way Peggy tells
it, “My bird fell on me. Then she showed up.” She was Maxima,
who took out the Taliban super and lifted the bird off Peggy.
The mission cost Peggy her right leg from the knee down, and
she counts herself lucky. Maxima saving her life would have been
enough to get the super on her birthday card list forever, but
when the golden supersoldier wound up in recovery herself on
the same base as Peggy (the injuring incident is also classified),
they became friends. When Archon formed Arc-SWAT, Maxima
suggested Peggy and convinced her to transfer. Peggy’s primary
field role on the team is as a sniper, but she also flies their birds
(usually an Osprey) and functions as the force’s personal trainer
and nutritionist.

First Lieutenant Peggy Kessler barely meets the US Army’s
minimum-height requirements and she dyes her hair pink. On
the other hand, her haircut is military-short and the two ruler-
straight scars crisscrossing her face tell their own story. Despite
Arc-SWAT’s more relaxed physical fitness requirements, she
keeps herself in fighting shape and she’s the most “military”
of her teammates, but unlike Maxima she rather enjoys
the non-uniform antics of their formerly civilian
and still-civilian teammates.
17
2: The Cast
Corporal Achilles ~ Harold Harper

Skills
Power Level Mega
Great (+4) Athletics, Drive
Good (+3) Fight, Shoot, Provoke
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Academics, Deceive, Investigate, Notice
Cosmic-Level Invulnerability Average (+1) Contacts, Empathy, Rapport, Stealth, Will
Hero Aspect
Easy-Going Variety Seeker
Stunts / Extras
Power Scale ∞. (See note below)
Trouble Aspect Cosmic Invulnerability. Achilles cannot be physically harmed. Period. Pain? Fatigue?
“I’ll be fine. I’m always fine.” What’s that? Because of his Power Aspect, Achilles has no Physical Stress Track, no extra
Physical Consequence Slot for his +5 Physique – he will always automatically Defend against
Background Aspect Attacks that do physical harm. Being invulnerable doesn’t mean being unstoppable, however;
Seems to know a little about for example, a superhuman attacker could punch him through a wall, collapsing it on him as
everything. a Create an Advantage Action. Players can also push what would be Physical Consequences
off on the environment (see SPF p.4 or Fate Toolkit p.61). (2)
Background Aspect Superhuman Because Unbreakable. Achilles’s bones and ligaments are undamageable
and he can’t even feel fatigue (he could run forever if he wanted to, just not very fast), and
“Come on, I’ll make it easy for
this lets him punch without worrying about injury, lift without strain, etc. The effect is to
you!”
make him a low-level superhuman, giving him a PS1 when fighting and using his strength.
Come and Get Me! Achilles gets a +2 to Provoke when attempting to draw an attacker’s
Stress & Consequences attention to him (treat as a Create an Advantage Action). Once focused on him, his opponent
Mental Stress will need to make an Overcome with Will to shift his attention elsewhere before he’s been
dealt with.
Moving Target. (Not the way you think.) While not particularly fast on his feet, Achilles
has a gift for being where he needs to be to soak up hits. He gets a +2 when attempting to
Defend by bodily interposing himself between an attacker and their target.
Consequences (Note: When it comes to ignoring physical damage of any kind, Achilles’ Power Scale is
2 effectively unmeasurable, but this makes him less dangerous than you might think. The way
4 to handle Achilles is to immobilize him, remove him from the action, or somehow render
6 him harmless. He doesn’t take weapons into fights and isn’t that highly trained; properly
equipped police and military personnel could deal with him, and lots of superpowers can
work around his invulnerability, mental powers most especially. He can take Mental Stress,
Team Resources +4 representing states like distraction, confusion, apprehension, or even horror for a Mild
Consequence. Moderate or Severe Mental Consequences might come from a failure to
protect others.
Refresh 4 In most fights he runs interference until somebody drops a wall on him, ties him up, kicks
him out of town (literally), or otherwise ends his effectiveness in the Scene. He’s great for
going in first and tripping traps, drawing fire, and sowing confusion though.)
18
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities History
Achilles’ power is one of the strangest I’ve seen here. He’s Harold Harper’s abilities appeared relatively late in life, in his early
invulnerable. Completely and utterly invulnerable. He can’t be 20s. He doesn’t actually remember getting them, just realizing
poisoned, suffocated, starved, irradiated, crushed, cut, pierced, somewhere along the line “Hey, I can’t get hurt. By anything.”
burned, frozen or injured by any method yet discovered. He Harold found it easy to live very well working various high-risk
doesn’t fatigue. If someone dropped a nuke on him the only but low to mid-skill jobs. Until recently covered by the Veil, all of
reason he’d notice would be the flash and bang (which wouldn’t Harold’s miraculous escapes from death, dismemberment, and
hurt him). He doesn’t tan beyond the healthy glow he apparently papercuts were dismissed as incredible luck or special effects.
had when his power triggered. Nor, apparently, does he age; his Eventually a bored Harold teamed up with Mr. Amorphous
power triggered in the 80s, and even his hairstyle is stuck there. and Heatwave to try their hands at becoming superheroes
But Achilles is not invincible; invincible means undefeatable, (i.e., superpowered vigilantes). That worked out about as well
and although he’s also minorly superhumanly strong since he as you’d expect, and when Archon tracked them down (quite
doesn’t need to worry about tearing muscles or breaking bones, easily) and offered them a choice between knocking it off or
or pain, he’s outmatched by superhumans stronger than he is joining Arc-SWAT, he accepted because “You can only drive a
(there are many) or faster than he is (he’s not particularly agile car off a plane into an ammo dump so many times before it gets
or swift). He can be neutralized in a fight by throwing him out boring.”
of the zone, dropping a wall on him, or just handcuffing him to a
rail. Achilles also presents no similar immunity to mental powers.
Illusions and other mental manipulations appear to work against
him just fine, but he can’t even be affected by drugs that induce
sleep or other incapacitating states but inflict no harm.
There is no discernible physical basis for Achille’s power;
Archon has theorized that his power is either cosmic (his current
physical state is somehow “coded into the universe”) or an exotic
form of time-manipulation that resets his physical parameters
in millionths of a second – he “heals” damage too fast for it to
be noticeable even by him. Both these explanations are
purest speculative bullshitting.

Achilles is a total “dude.” 5’10”, blond-haired and blue eyed,
square jawed and muscular. His hair and wardrobe is stuck in
the 80s. After decades of living with his power, he doesn’t have
any real adrenaline-based fear reaction to dangerous situations.
In most fights his favored tactic is to grapple his opponents;
once he gets a good grip or lock he’s impossible to shake off
except by slipperiness or surprise. If he can’t get close enough,
he can still get in the way, and his unofficial power is merciless
taunting. If he were smarter, faster, or better trained (or just
heavily armed), he’d be exponentially more dangerous but that’s
just not how he rolls.
19
2: The Cast
Corporal Anvil ~ Kenya Landry

Skills
Power Level Mega
Great (+4) Athletics, Will
Good (+3) Fight, Notice, Provoke
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Academics, Empathy, Investigate, Shoot
Super-Strong Kinetic Average (+1) Contacts, Deceive, Drive, Rapport, Stealth
Capacitor
Hero Aspect Stunts / Extras

Impressively Visible Archon Power Scale 3. (0)
Cape
Superhuman Recovery. Anvil may pay 1 Fate Point to recover from all Physical Stress
Trouble Aspect
Hard as Nails. Anvil automatically succeeds at her Recovery Action for Physical
Inconveniently Sized
Also, once per Session she may change a Severe Physical Consequence to a Moderate
Background Aspect Physical Consequence (if the Consequence Slot is available), or treat a Moderate Physical
Highly trained team player Consequence as a Mild Physical Consequence when Recovering.
Kinetic Absorption. If Anvil braces herself against an incoming kinetic force hits (fists,
Background Aspect bats, bullets, meteors, the approaching ground…), she will Defend with her +5 Physique and
“Caught backfooted? Use her PS3, plus a +4 for her Absorption Power 4. If she succeeds, her kinetic capacitor power
what you’ve got.” will give her 1 Boost (FC p.23) for each level of the attacker’s Power Scale Rating or Weapon
Rating (whichever is higher). Her reserve max is 4 Boosts; beyond that she will still get her +4
to Defend against kinetic attacks, but won’t stock more Boosts until she spends some of her
Stress & Consequences reserve. In any subsequent turn, she can spend one or more Boosts in any Action involving
Physical Stress applied physical force. This is usually punches or kicks but can be feats of strength (fast lifts,
throws, etc.), and in one case it was a very damaging finger-boop. (4)
Mental Stress
Consequences
2
4
6
(Physical Only)
2
Team Resources +4
Refresh 4
20
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities Appearance and Personality
Anvil rates around mid-class for superhuman strength; stronger At 6’7” and not in any way skinny, Anvil makes a big target.
than Achilles, not as strong as Hiro or Maxima. Just her strength Years of attention drawn to her build, bust, and height have
and toughness make her valuable for the team, but her made her very self-conscious of her appearance – an issue
secondary power is to absorb kinetic energy (punches, bullets, she’s still working through. Adding to that, despite a childhood
high-speed impact with the ground…) and release it back in spent around construction sites plus time in the military, Kenya
the form of devastating hits. In a fight they usually point her at takes after her mother and is very much a southern belle at
their opponent’s heaviest hitters, especially the ones known for heart. She likes skirts, dresses, frilly things she doesn’t wear
a punch first approach to combat. If they have some lead up to that often – very much the opposite of Maxima, who was an
the fight, she’ll either enter the scene via freefall drop from the athletic and sport-mad girl before her transformation. Despite
Osprey or after taking a few warm-up punches from Maxima, their differences, Anvil and Maxima have bonded over their
Hiro, or Stalwart. Love-taps, she calls them. mutual disgust at crude male attentions, and have become good
friends to the point of pranks. Anvil is the one pushing Maxima
History to be more social, and Anvil is the only one Maxima lets push
Kenya Landry grew up in New Orleans, all around the Gulf,
her that way.
really, as her family moved for big construction jobs. With three
older brothers in the family business, the whole clan tended to
relocate together. The constant moving would have made her
social life awkward enough, growing up, but that was nothing
on her early physical growth; when she entered middle school
she was already six feet tall (one joke went that she wasn’t a
beanpole, she was a telephone pole). She finished high school
standing 6’7” and not a pole of any kind.
Kenya went into the army after graduation, mostly to get out
of the family business (and besides, the physical qualifications
were a snap). Also, the military seemed one of the few non-
construction jobs where her attributes were appreciated. Still
gawked at, but appreciated. The special ops unit Kenya was
assigned to dubbed her Anvil for their tactic of dropping her on
the enemy. Archon recruited Kenya into the superhero game
before she’d finished her first tour of duty; sure the pay would
be amazing, and the promotion to sergeant was nice, but for
Kenya the big upside was the possibility of not being the most
noticeable girl in any room. Beside Maxima and Dabbler, she
gets her wish.
21
2: The Cast
Corporal Harem ~ Daphne DeShantis

Skills
Superb (+5) Notice
Power Level Mega
Great (+4) Athletics, Contacts
Good (+3) Fight, Shoot, Provoke
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Academics, Empathy, Investigate, Physique
Multiplying Teleporter Average (+1) Deceive, Drive, Rapport, Stealth, Will
Hero Aspect
Five Faces, All Pretty Hot
Stunts / Extras
Power Scale 0. (+3 Fate Points.) Harem’s default is PS0, but she can raise it to PS4 (see A
Trouble Aspect Harem of One! below).
Many Idle Hands Plenty of Hands. Harem only gets to make one Action roll on her turn, but there are
up to five Harems who can perform up to five Actions. Harem must announce which Skills
Background Aspect and Actions she’s taking, choose the lowest Skill she’s using that turn, and roll the dice. The
Jill of all Skills resulting Skill Rating + Die Roll must then be split among the attempted Actions, each Effort
getting a +2 bonus (with the limitation that no resulting Effort can be greater than the
unsplit Effort would have been before Invokes). She must assign at least one pre-bonus shift
Background Aspect to each attempted Action, even if the Action is automatic or she knows the Action won’t
“Need a hand?” succeed. (2)
Example: in a developing melee, on her turn Harem decides to 1) teleport to the armory
and retrieve a sniper rifle and gear for Peggy (Overcome), 2) set up an observation post
Stress & Consequences to call shots in the fight (Create an Advantage), 3) blink into and out of the middle of
Physical Stress the enemy lineup, dropping flashbangs as she goes (Attack for Stun damage), 4) absorb
one of her selves to toughen up the rest (see below). Her lowest applicable Skill is Fight or
Shoot +3 and she rolls a +2 for a total Effort of +5. Actions 1 and 4 are Automatic, so she
splits her shifts as +1/+1/+2/+1 – with her Stunt bonus +3/+3/+4/+3. She may now add
any bonuses she can from Invokes, Free Invokes, or Boosts, again splitting them however
she wishes.
Mental Stress
Teleport-Dodge. Harem uses Notice to dodge Fight or Shoot Attacks, attempts to
grapple, etc. Even completely immobilized, if she can see something coming she can port-
dodge away.
A Harem of One! As an automatic (but not free) Action to which Harem must devote
Consequences 1 shift per self involved if she is also using Plenty of Hands, she can absorb one of her
selves, boosting the Power Scale of her remaining selves by 1 for purposes of strength and
2
toughness. Doing this will reduce her Notice, and the number of separate Actions she can
4
perform, by one level per step for the duration. If only a single Harem remains, she will have
6
a Mediocre (+0) Notice and only a single Action per turn, but a PS4 for her toughness and
strength! (4)
Team Resources +4 Absorb the Hit. If Harem takes a Consequence in the form of physical damage to one
of her selves, she may use A Harem of One! to temporarily ignore the Consequence by
absorbing her injured self. This will “cover” the Consequence and remove any Free Invokes
Refresh 5 attached to it, but will not clear the Consequence Slot; she must eventually manifest her
injured self and go through Recovery to clear the slot.
Instant-Access Armory. Harem has a 1-point Stunt Pool which she can use to equip
herself from Archon’s armory. Allocating the Stunt Pool or creating Gear Aspects on the
stuff she brings to the scene, requires an Automatic Action (1 shift per Stunt and Gear
Aspect if she’s using Plenty of Hands).
22
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities With one mind capable of multitasking through a growing
Okay, check this. Harem is 1) a duplicator capable of maintaining number of brains, Daphne began “branching out.” One of her
up to five unique and persistent bodies as her default existence, bodies would sit in school and study, but that left the rest at
a single mind with five brains, 2) a teleporter capable of moving loose ends. Farm chores! Lots of those, but her parents were
herself plus up to 25 lbs. including clothing, and 3) capable fair. Hobbies. Later, boys. Still later – as soon as she reached her
of consolidating down from her five-body norm – along with majority – travel and a variety of jobs while still on the farm and
whatever she’s wearing or carrying – to increase her physical graduating from high school. While she’s capable of seamlessly
strength and toughness to superhuman levels. With four bodies multitasking across all five bodies, if something startles her,
she’s twice as strong, and when there’s only one of her she’s or she experiences intense or surprising sensations, reflexive
sixteen times as strong as the average nineteen-year-old. It’s response will get spread across some or all of her bodies. After
all something about quantum-entanglement which makes no a few embarrassing incidents, she’s learned not to do certain
sense. She can teleport from any location to herself, or to any things in private while other parts of her are in public.
location she can see line-of-sight or is familiar with (has at least While technically Archon’s youngest recruit, and emotionally
visited several times or spent several days at). Her theoretical still a teenager since that has to do almost as much with brain
range is appears to be unlimited. development as life-experience, Daphne’s lived close to fifty
overlapping years and possesses an impressive array of varied
History skills. She’s also always on the lookout for novelty, one of the
Daphne DeShantis was born and raised on a farm in Iowa and reasons she joined the team and why she’s an enthusiastic spy
was a fairly average young girl until one day at the age of eight, for Deus. Or double-agent for Archon. Or triple agent? It’s hard
there were suddenly two of her. After some adjustment and an to keep track.
escalating number of pranks, things calmed down around the
farm – until the age of ten when her third self appeared. This Appearance and Personality
trend has continued; at her current biological age of nineteen, a Harem’s bodies all started out identical but she’s customized
sixth Daphne is predicted to appear any day now. them over time, dying and cutting hair, individualizing wardrobes,
and getting a number of tattoos. Each body displays a somewhat
different personality as well, but that’s an affectation.
Daphne loves pranking others, she has serious military
discipline issues, and her loyalty is questionable, but
she’s not a bad person, she’s just self-centered in
a rather unique way. She’s also still afflicted with a
teenager’s sense of immortality, aggravated by the
fact that she could likely survive the death of one or
more of her bodies. Though it seriously disturbs her
that people keep wondering what would happen then.
“How about I speculate how you’d do if I chopped one of
your legs off? Hmm?”
23
2: The Cast
Corporal Heatwave ~ Brook Falls

Skills
Superb (+5) Will
Power Level Mega
Great (+4) Athletics, Shoot
Good (+3) Fight, Physique, Rapport
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Contacts, Drive, Empathy, Stealth
Thermalkinetic Average (+1) Academics, Burglary, Deceive, Investigate, Notice
Hero Aspect
Team Player
Stunts / Extras
Power Scale 2. (+1 Fate Point)
Trouble Aspect Heat-Shield. Heatwave can use her power to “parry” incoming bullets, buffeting them
Strangely Pyrophobic with focused turbulence en route. When she does she gets a +3 to her Fight Skill’s Defend
Action. However, when she uses the heat shield she creates a short-lived Stray Rounds
Background Aspect Situation Aspect on her Zone, which the GM can promote to a Hazard (FC p. 49, 51) at the
A Little Slow On the Uptake cost of an FP!
Turn Up the Heat. Heatwave can raise a target’s internal body temperature very fast
Background Aspect indeed. When she uses her Shoot Skill to inflict heat exhaustion on a target (an incapacitating
condition marked by heavy sweating, rapid pulse, dizziness, fatigue, muscle cramps, nausea
Hick-chick, country girl,
and headache), she gets a +2 to create the Heat Exhaustion advantage.
cornhusker, still acts like
she just came from the farm. Stroke the Heat. Going one step further, Heatwave can inflict near-instant and truly
incapacitating heatstroke (the more severe symptoms include an altered mental state,
nausea and vomiting, flushed skin, rapid breathing and racing heart rate). Treat this as a
Stress & Consequences Stun Attack (p.9); if the target receives immediate Recovery aid at the end of the Scene, all is
Physical Stress well. If not, recalculate the shifts of Stress to fill the Consequence boxes as normal (for NPCs
this might result in death, for PCs possibly a Moderate Consequence).
Explosive Sublimation. Against non-living targets, Heatwave can heat a pinpoint on

an object’s surface quickly enough to expand the heated point explosively. This will turn a
target’s Armor Rating into additional shifts of harm rather than protection.
Mental Stress Heat Sink. Heatwave can absorb heat. She can absorb heat from a fire until its temperature
drops below its combustion-point. Weirdly, she can do this selectively even over a wide area,
cooling the fires but not chilling everything else. When she Overcomes fires in this way, she
gets a +2 Packing Heat Boost for each successful Overcome. She can use the Boosts in
subsequent heat projections.
Consequences (Note: In a fight, Heatwave’s usual tactic is to hover over the action and work on targets
2 with Turn Up the Heat, softening them up for her teammates to take down. Yes she could
4 make targets spontaneously combust with a straight up Attack with Shoot, and why would
6 you even suggest that?)
(Mental Only)
2
Team Resources +4
Refresh 6
24
2: The Cast
Profile
was it.) She can’t vaporize bullets with her power, but she can
create enough focused turbulence in the air around her to
significantly alter their trajectory. (This is can be bad news for
anyone behind her, as this tends to scatter projectiles around
in a haphazard manner, but it didn’t bother her original super-
tough teammates.) Heatwave can also “draw in” heat, cooling
hotspots around her enough to suppress fires. She hates doing
it, though, and has explained that absorbing heat “feels ooky.”
History
Brook Falls is a country girl who left the ranch for the big city
as soon as she could. Part of it was her problem with fire; she
burned down the family barn when her power manifested,
almost killing their horses. It left her severely pyrophobic,
which limited the one real use of her power in rural Texas. Brook
traveled, taking on jobs that didn’t use her power (she says she’s
a decent waitress), and through a series of comic misadventures,
fell into the vigilante game along with Mister Amorphous and
Achilles. Adamantly opposed to putting “fire” anywhere in her
name, she became Heatwave. Brook didn’t really understand
that what they were doing was against the law – well of course
it was, but it wasn’t bad, they were superheroes, after all – and
she jumped at the chance to stay out of prison when they were
eventually rounded up by Archon and offered immunity if they
joined. (She wasn’t thrilled at the idea of joining the military, but
figured she had to “pick her switch.”)
Mr. Amorphous is Heatwave’s boyfriend; she likes that she
doesn’t have careful around him, and he really is very sweet.
Achilles is even more immune to her power, but she decided
he wasn’t a serious man. The three of them still form a kind of
subgroup in ArcSWAT.

Heatwave is unique among supers, in that she’s a pretty but
physically average woman until she invokes her powers. She
starts off at 5’ 5” and grows to 5’ 9” when she “brings the heat,”
Abilities and her body develops the typical Super physique. No one has
Heatwave can, perhaps unsurprisingly, generate heat in objects figured out why this is, but as a result she tends to stay in her
within her range. Not fire, something that upsets her personally. Super form nearly all the time. (She’d be a terrifying pyrokinetic
Just heat. She can, however, generate a lot of it – enough to if she wasn’t pyrophobic.) Heatwave isn’t the brightest member
explosively sublimate tank armor, in fact. She can also surround of the team, which is a polite way of saying that she usually
herself in a corona of heat that allows her to fly and is also very requires supervision in the field. She’s brave and loyal, though,
good at dissuading people from grappling her. She herself is and she’s slowly figuring out how to have girlfriends, a learning
utterly immune to the effects of heat. (She once melted an curve somewhat hampered by the tendency of some of the
aluminum can in her hand; it welded her hand closed, but that team’s ladies to tease her by twitting her jealousy.
25
2: The Cast
Corporal Stalwart ~ Stewart Aegir

Power Level Ultra Skills
Power Aspect Great (+4) Contacts, Fight
Super-Strong Density Good (+3) Athletics, Drive, Shoot
Controller Fair (+2) Deceive, Notice, Provoke, Will
Average (+1) Academics, Burglary, Empathy, Rapport, Stealth
Hero Aspect
“Dude, not a cape.”
Stunts / Extras
Trouble Aspect Power Scale 3. (0)
Former Underworld Muscle Superhuman Recovery. Stalwart may pay 1 Fate Point to recover from all Physical Stress
Background Aspect
Hard as Nails. Stalwart automatically succeeds at his Recovery Action for Physical
Likes The High Life
Also, once per Session he may change a Severe Physical Consequence to a Moderate
Background Aspect Physical Consequence (if the Consequence Slot is available), or treat a Moderate Physical
All The Confidence Of An Consequence as a Mild Physical Consequence when Recovering.
Immovable Object
Grasshopper. Dialing his density to human-normal, Stalwart is capable of leaping up to
three times his normal Zone movement as an Action. This counts as a full Action, but he can
turn it into a multiple Action if the second Action is Wrecking Ball (below).
Immovable Object. Increasing his density as an Automatic Action, Stalwart can trade
Physical Stress
levels of his Athletics Rating for additional Power Scale Rating applied to Defend whether
his opponent is trying to do direct damage or just get him to move. His Athletics can’t drop
below Average (+1).
Density Intensity. When Stalwart increases his density, he also grows stronger, raising
his Power Scale Rating for purposes of strength at a rate of +1 per level of increase he has
Mental Stress
applied with Immovable Object, above (PS 5 maximum).
Wrecking Ball. One of Stalwart’s signature moves is to do a Grasshopper jump and dial
his density to the max in midair. It’s an easy move to dodge, but its target is generally a
building. He gains a +1 PS against his target, whether the Action was an Overcome, Create
an Advantage, or Attack.
Consequences
2
4
6
(Physical Only)
2
Team Resources +4
Refresh 4
26
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities the strength of mortal man. Archon speculates that Stewart’s
Stalwart is what is known as a “brick,” his power being super- family tree includes several direct and related super ancestors.
human strength and toughness. He also possesses the ability to Stewart didn’t have much patience for all that family tradition
manipulate his density; he once pinned Hiro by stepping on him crap. He liked partying, women, and money, and wasn’t
and increasing his weight to equal the Space Shuttle’s. Stalwart interested in using his gift for pro-social purposes; instead he
is very strong; the only super on the team stronger when he hired himself out to one of the older surviving mob families with
dials up his density and strength is Maxima, and that’s when she a simple demonstration of his strength and invulnerability. He
dials up her strength with her symbiont. wasn’t a hitman, exactly, he didn’t have to kill anybody. All his boss
had to do was point him at an enemy’s coke-lab or warehouse
History and he’d “visit.” Complete destruction of the operation was
Stewart’s family name is Aegir, which in Norse means “of the always the result. Stewart always wore a disguising helmet
gods.” According to family legend, they’re descended from and reinforced jumpsuit for his assignments, and even in the
Siegfried. The Nibelungenlied tells the story of Seigfried, a criminal underworld only his immediate employer knew him as
mighty warrior who slew a dragon and bathed in its blood, anything other than the infamous Juggernaut. Stewart’s reward
gaining physical invulnerability. From the dragon’s hoard he was enough money for the luxurious lifestyle he wanted; at least
also took Balmung, a magic sword that gave him twelve times until Archon followed the breadcrumbs of police reports.
Since criminals don’t generally report crimes that would shine
light on their own operations it took a while, but the extreme
property damage was hard to miss when one knew what to look
for. Archon bided its time while nudging the local police in the
right direction, and once they had gathered enough evidence to
prove that Stewart was behind the destruction (though fuzzy
on the how), they offered him immunity in return for enlistment.
Ironically, the pay is about as good and comes with the bonus of
legitimacy and fame.

Stalwart isn’t putting up with any superhero-costume crap;
when not forced into uniform he dresses in tailored outfits from
Italy. He keeps his hair military short since, for some reason, his
invulnerability doesn’t extend much past its roots and scorched
or hacked hair looks terrible. His invulnerability doesn’t cover
what he’s wearing, either, but he’s willing to lose a good outfit
in a fight if he must. Stalwart’s moral flexibility made Maxima
leery of recruiting him, but she agreed on the grounds that it
was better to have him under military discipline than to have to
keep surveillance on him or try and imprison him. Surprisingly,
Stalwart’s proved himself…stalwart. He’s not interested in
fighting but he’s steady when he gets into it, and he works well
with the team. He’s not invested in the job, it’s a job, but he has
a fine appreciation for the benefits of loyalty.
27
2: The Cast
Recruit Halo ~ Sydney Scoville, Jr.

Skills
Superb (+5) Will
Power Level Ultra
Great (+4) Notice, Provoke
Good (+3) Fight, Shoot, Stealth
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Drive, Empathy, Investigate, Rapport
Mistress of the Orbs Average (+1) Academics, Athletics, Burglary, Contacts, Deceive
Hero Aspect
Stunts / Extras
Archon’s Newest And Most
Enthusiastic Recruit Power Scale 3. (0)
Powerful Orbs of Power. The Power Scale of Sydney’s orbs varies wildly: PS4 Flight,
Trouble Aspect PS4 Blast, PS5 Shield, PS1 Virtual Recon, PS2 Lighthook. PS 3 is taken as the “average” (the
Orb control still “iffy.” reason she’s classed as an Ultra) but Sydney may only use two of those powers at a time –
one orb in each hand. Swapping one or both orbs out is an Automatic Action. (2)
Background Aspect Mind is Motion. Sydney’s +5 Will rating is purely related to her orbs, and goes towards
Being superhero genre-savvy both the speed generated by her Flight Orb (but not dodge) and the power or her Forcefield
isn’t a real power, but it helps. Orb (when her Forcefield is up, she’ll Defend at +5 plus her Power Scale Bonus). Otherwise
her Will is +0 (a good representation of her impulse-control).
Background Aspect Super ADHD Brain, Activate! Sydney is capable of collating her experiences and
“Always. Expect. Ninjas.” idiosyncratic knowledge-base (mostly based on comics) to come up with A Plan. She gets a
+2 to Create an Advantage with whichever Skill is most relevant to The Plan.
Stress & Consequences Contagious Confusion. Sydney gets a +2 to Create an Advantage with Provoke when
she engages in an activity or dialogue that makes her target(s) go “What.”
Physical Stress
Halo’s Orb Breakdown
Forcefield Orb: Halo can generate a Meta-Class level forcefield around herself in a sphere
(a half-sphere if grounded). The sphere is impermeable to anything other than ambient
light; it even blocks teleportation and mental influence. Halo can expand the sphere to cover
a small crowd.
Mental Stress
Energy Projection Orb (Pew Pew): Halo can fire a Paragon-Class level energy blast with
this orb, one capable of continuous-beam projection or rapid-fire bursts
Flight Orb: Simply, with this orb Halo can hover, float, and fly (top speed appears to be
around Mach 4). The orb accomplishes this by mediating/redirecting the vector of local
gravity in relation to Halo.
Consequences
2 Swiss-Army Orb: Using this orb, Halo can send out a “light bee” with a wide range, and
4 project a telepresence-image of herself to the LB’s location. Through this telepresent image
she can see, hear, and speak as if she were present. When holding the orb, she can also see
6
through all mental/mystical illusions (a power called Truesight, which doesn’t work for her
(Mental Only) telepresent self).
2
Lighthook Orb: Halo can project a “lighthook” from this orb, a solid-light pseudopod/
tentacle of variable thickness and length (from two feet to many yards long). Completely
flexible, it’s been used it to do everything from pick up rubble to creating a “neon sign”
Team Resources +4 advertising her comic store. Its lift-strength is “only” around ten thousand pounds, but Halo
can project it outside of her forcefield.
Refresh 5 Mystery Orb 1: No idea.
Mystery Orb 2: No idea.
(Note: The descriptions and PS Ratings for Halo’s power orbs are Archon’s initial assessment
when she joined. If the PCs encounter Halo too much later she’ll have leveled up a bit.
Literally.)
28
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities when she stopped glaring. Luckily after multiple panic attacks
The Mighty Halo is not a superhuman. Her powers come from Sydney found she could direct their motion and positions
a set of artifacts, six glowing orbs the size of pool-balls. These mentally within their range and that allowed her hide them
orbs are somehow linked to her, unable to be separated from her all in her diving bag and get them home. At home she carried
by more than a few yards. Bizarrely, attempts to separate them them around in a poster-tube (her explanations for carrying
don’t result in dragging Halo along. Instead, the orbs simply the tube wherever she went got increasingly imaginative)
refuse to be moved beyond their range; reciprocally, Halo can’t and she cautiously experimented. Yes, caution appears pretty
move beyond their range if something holds them in place. Halo alien to Sydney’s nature, but apparently she was terrified of
exercises telekinetic control (Will +5, PS 0) of the location and The Government finding out about them and whisking them
motion of the orbs within their range (she has occasionally away for study; since she was attached to them, whisking and
weaponized this ability in close combat), but using an orb’s studying would involve studying her, too.
power requires touching it with a hand (skin-contact required). Sydney’s attempt to keep the orbs a secret ended when
This limits her to using only two orb powers at a time. See Halo’s she had the misfortune to witness an attempted robbery and
Power Stunts box for a breakdown of the individual orb abilities. the unusual behavior of her orbs became readily apparent to
Maxima – Arc-SWAT’s senior field officer who just happened to
History be there making a deposit. Busted. Long story short, Archon
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have recruited Sydney as the newest government-sponsored super-
greatness glom upon them. According to all our research (and agent, The Mighty Halo (she chose the name). The idea of
one notably censored TV interview), Sydney Scoville, Jr. was military discipline in general is completely alien to Sydney, but in
born average – if you define average as a short spazzy geek with addition to a truly ungodly paycheck, she gets to be a superhero.
serious ADHD. Before becoming Halo, her most noteworthy While she’s technically still a trainee, Sydney’s power-level is
traits appeared to be a taste for truly, incredibly, inhumanly hot matched by only a couple of her teammates (Maxima, Dabbler),
peppers (ghost peppers are decent, but for real and she has a knack for finding herself in combat situations
heat she prefers Carolina Reapers), a gift that weren’t supposed to be combat situations.
for unbelievably foul and imaginative
swearing, and an unusual police record. Appearance and Personality
She achieved averageness, leveraging Sydney is a five-foot-nothing beanpole, with
her obsession with geek-culture (comics, floppy dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and wire-
movies, etc.) into running a slowly failing rimmed glasses. Unprepossessing, she’s physically
comic store with her best friend Joel. And dangerous only because of her aggressive adrenaline-
then one day greatness glommed upon charged panic response (she was once charged with
her. aggravated assault on a would-be mugger).
While scuba-diving off the Florida Keys, Sydney is very sharp when she
she discovered a cluster of weird glowing focuses, but her ADHD gives
spheres imbedded in a cracked spur of corral. her the attention-span of a
Like an idiot she just had to touch the strange caffeinated squirrel when
glowing things; a single finger-touch and she’s not focused on her
seven orbs ripped themselves out of immediate situation and there’s
the reef to circle her head like a trippy no filter between her racing brain and
wheel. Panicked grabbing of one orb her mouth. Despite sometimes being
shot Sydney out of the water and as high-strung as a cello’s A-string,
into the sky. Sydney is earnest, keen, and puppy-
And she couldn’t get rid of them. dog serious about doing the right thing
She could grab and throw them, but – which to her means Using My Powers
they’d just hit their range limit and for Good! She wants to be a superhero.
hover, sneaking back into the circle The good kind, not the dark Frank Miller
deconstructionist kind.
29
2: The Cast
Recruit Jiggawat ~ Azarin Nazari

Skills
Superb (+5) Shoot
Power Level Ultra
Great (+4) Athletics, Will
Good (+3) Academics, Empathy, Notice
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Fight, Investigate, Physique, Provoke
Transforming Electrokinetic Average (+1) Contacts, Deceive, Drive, Rapport, Stealth
Hero Aspect
Stunts / Extras
Hot Cape
Power Scale 4. (1)
Trouble Aspect Arc-Flight. Jiggawat can spend a Fate Point to enter a Scene from any reasonably close
Doesn’t Entirely Control Her location (no more than a few hundred miles distant) so long as she can travel as ground-to-
Power cloud, cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-to-ground lightning.
Lightning Net. When Jiggawat spreads an electrical Attack among multiple targets,
Background Aspect assigning at least 1 shift to each target, she gets +1 shift added to each target. She can
Large and Connected Family ramp up the voltage for +3 shifts to each target, but doing that will create an unfavorable
Collateral Damage Aspect on the Scene and give the GM a Free Invoke!
Background Aspect Set to Stun! Jiggawat can modulate the amperage of her Attacks so that they only do
Brings the Sass Stun Damage. Stun Damage fills Stress boxes as normal, but only requires 2 shifts to fill
each Consequence Slot (Mild, Moderate, and Severe). This allows NPCs and even PCs to be
Taken Out more quickly. Each slot filled using Stun Damage will automatically “recover” at
Stress & Consequences the end of the Scene and clear as if it were a Mild Consequence slot. So a target Taken Out
by Jiggawat’s electric attack will regain consciousness for the next Scene, and having fully
Physical Stress
shaken off the aftereffects, will clear the Consequence slots at the end of that full Scene.
Living Capacitor. Jiggawat can create a Stored Charge Situation Aspect as a Create
an Advantage Action using Will. The GM will determine the Difficulty Rating based on
how much power (if any) they think is available in the Scene for her to draw. On the next
turn Jiggawat may use any Free Invokes attached to the Stored Charge in an Attack.
Mental Stress
Alternatively, she may invoke the Aspect to hit everything in her own and all adjacent Zones
with an EMP wave to create a Burned Out Situation Aspect on all unshielded electronics in
the Zones. Doing either will remove the Stored Charge Aspect. She has yet to fully use this
power, since Archon is still working on making the team’s com-gear reliably robust against
close range EMP events!
Consequences
2
4
6
Team Resources +4
Refresh 5
30
2: The Cast
Profile
Jiggawatt is capable of generating and absorbing massive Jiggawatt stands at 5’ 9” and her sharp features, dark skin, and
amounts of electricity. She is also capable of transforming into blonde dreadlocks make her a very striking woman (part of the
electricity to travel via lightning. She can move from ground to reason why the showbiz threat was so convincing). The dreads
cloud, cloud to cloud, and cloud to ground this way, and even keep her doo from puffing into a hairy dandelion when she
travel through conductive materials (when she travels through sparks (which is pretty much whenever she becomes grounded),
people, well it’s fortunate she’s capable of modulating her and her eyes shine like arc lights when she really amps up her
amperage to non-lethal levels). She can also generate powerful power; she’s been known to stop fights just by arriving in a
point-to-point electric/plasma arcs capable of cutting steel crash of lightning with glowing eyes and electric arcs dancing
between her hands, and even generate electrons with a positive in her hands. Knowing she could take care of herself in just
charge, positrons (not generally a good idea). about any situation since she was a young teen, plus having an
overprotective but aggressively supportive family, has shaped
History Jiggawatt into a confident woman who likes to toss the sass
Azarin Nazari is an Egyptian-Ethiopian American. Her Coptic
around in a fight. And into a woman for whom family loyalty is
Christian parents brought her to the US when she was six, and
everything, whether they’re blood family or comrades in arms.
now a naturalized US citizen she barely remembers Cairo. Much
of her family immigrated to the US, mostly due to religious
persecution, and they remain close. Azarin loves her family,
but has stories about the interfering ways of uncles and aunts.
(“They all have a say in my life-choices, and that’s a lot of fun.”)
When Azarin’s powers inconveniently appeared – during the
stress of her first “real date,” making that first kiss truly electric
– the family closed ranks around her. Nobody was going to mess
with their Azarin.
Ironically, this made Azarin one of Archon’s hardest sells. Her
family had no parochial objections to women taking combat
roles; rather, their experience with the corrupt Egyptian
government, and their view of American military adventurism,
left them skeptical of Archon’s ability to value their daughter as
more than a disposable asset. Azarin argued that she wanted
more out of life than ignoring her gift or hiring out as a mobile
field generator, and won by threatening to go into showbiz (“I
bring my own special-effects!”). Well the family knew what
“those kind of people” were like, and a military/law-enforcement
career sounded safer. They were also reassured by the fact that
her commanding officer would be a woman.
Note: Azarin recently discovered she has a half-brother, Omar,
and he is also a super with electrical powers. This caused some
turmoil in her family, but the discovery was of immense interest
to scientists who are still baffled by what defines an individual as
being a super since there doesn’t seem to be a distinct genetic
marker for it. Omar’s powers are different from Azarin’s, in that
while he can generate a significant amount of current, he can’t
arc it in an attack. However, unlike Azarin, he can maintain
that current for many hours. Omar is an engineer and
currently works for Arc-SPARQ, Archon’s version of DARPA.
31
2: The Cast
Recruit Varia ~ Xochitl Xochiqetzal

Skills
Superb (+5) Will
Power Level Ultra
Great (+4) Athletics, Notice
Good (+3) Fight, Physique, Shoot
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Academics, Craft (Engineering), Drive, Rapport
Powermorph Average (+1) Burglary, Contacts, Deceive, Empathy, Stealth
Hero Aspect
Hero Of A Million Powers
Stunts / Extras
Power Scale 0/variable. (+3 Fate Points)
Trouble Aspect Varia’s Variations. Varia possesses a 6-point Stunt Pool! When she touches somebody,
Powers Are Contingent And she unlocks one of her infinite power options as an Automatic Overcome Action. This
Unpredictable creates a fresh power as a Situation Aspect which lasts as long as she maintains physical
contact. Since it’s not a Create an Advantage Action, she doesn’t get the Free Invoke, but
Background Aspect may spend Fate Points to invoke it (with a bonus, see below). The unlocked power’s Power
“Okay, so now this is happening.” Scale must be paid for with Stunt-points, and any remaining Stunt-points can expand the
power further. When Varia touches somebody who’s power-trigger she doesn’t know yet,
the GM can Compel her Trouble Aspect to give her a dud power or worse. (6)
Background Aspect
Mysterious Past Natural Ability. Varia never knows quite what she’s going to get, but always shows an
instinctive grasp of whatever power unlocks. When she Invokes her Power Aspect when
using her powers, she gets a +3 bonus rather than a +2!
Stress & Consequences Just Roll with It. Varia’s power has caused her a lot of headaches. It’s also forced her to
get quite adaptable, allowing her to react to changing events quickly. Once per Scene she
Physical Stress
can go when she likes during an Exchange so long as she hasn’t taken her turn yet.
Mental Stress
Consequences
2
4
6
(Mental Only)
2
Team Resources +4
Refresh 5
32
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities Despite her proud self-identification, Xochitl is a total
Varia is possibly the oddest “super” so far known. She has no Bostonian. Her mother runs a small IT firm in the city, and Xochitl
powers in herself, but when she touches anybody she gains graduated from Phillips Academy before attending Columbia
gestalt powers for as long as she maintains contact. It appears University. Her power triggered surprisingly late (most supers
that each person acts as a sort of decryption key, unlocking one trigger in their teens), at a New York rave. Cameras caught
of an infinite number of power options. Nothing is known with more than half a dozen spectacular physical transformations as
certainty, but the following truths apply: the power each person she bounced off panicked dancers on the floor. Archon acted
unlocks is consistent – it’s not different each time she touches fast to suppress the images, and perhaps it was lingering effects
them; somehow it’s linked to genetics – related individuals of the Veil that led most witnesses to decide it had all been some
will unlock close variants of a power; the unlocking person is “bad drugs.” The fire was caused by a gas-main leak.
immune to the direct effects of the power. Varia is a complete The significant limitations on her power notwithstanding,
wildcard that can present considerable challenges to any enemy she was too potentially useful to pass up on. She aaccepted
attacking the team. Of course, sometimes she touches someone recruitment shortly before Archon went public, and one of
and she gets the power to see farts, so it’s a mixed bag. the first things Archon did was begin testing to catalogue her
powers in gestalt with every other Arc-SWAT member and
History everybody else in their headquarters. You never know when the
Xochitl Xochiqetzal (pronounced sho-CHEEL SHO-ki-KET-zel) power to exponentially replicate whatever she’s holding in her
firmly identifies herself as “Aztec.” That’s because if she says hand (when she touches Debbie McAllister from Maintenance)
she’s Tenochca everybody goes “Who?” The Tenochca were the might come in handy.
rulers of the various peoples now remembered as the Aztecs Footnote: Archon continues to try and learn more about
of central Mexico today. Since her given name means flower in her history, and not just to settle the betting pool. “Her dad’s
Nahuatl and her family name is that of the Aztec goddess of a space-alien,” has been ruled out by genetic test (she’s 100%
beauty, fertility, and female sexual power, it’s likely her mother’s human). The genetic test also rules out “nymph born from
family was, as she says, nativos mexicanos. To this a flower that only blooms under an eclipse.” It doesn’t rule
day, Xochitl has no idea why she was born in out “daughter of a god,” since nobody knows if divinities have
Boston; her mother has never explained why different genes.
they came to the US or who her father was.
Varia is the third tallest female member of Arc-SWAT, just
behind Maxima at six feet even. Born and raised in Boston,
her strong “pahk the cah” Bostonian accent cause a bit
of a disconnect as she looks very much ethnically “Aztec.”
Varia has a laidback approach to the world; whatever
surprises her, she rolls with it – a considerable virtue
considering her power tends to surprise her all the time.
She was happy as a Columbia student; she’s happy now
with Archon.
33
2: The Cast
Civilian Specialist Dabbler ~ Xuriel Shahara Tantalis

Skills
Superb (+5) Craft
Power Level Paragon
Great (+4) Fight, Rapport
Good (+3) Lore, Physique, Shoot
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Academics, Athletics, Deceive, Investigate
Succubus, Tinker, Sorceress Average (+1) Contacts, Empathy, Notice, Provoke, Will
Hero Aspect
Stunts / Extras
Exotic adventuress
Power Scale 4. (1)
Trouble Aspect Enhanced. Succubae are physically and psychically enhanced, giving them a +1 to
Flirts with danger (and every Overcome or Create an Advantage for actions involving Athletics, Rapport, and Will.
thing else) as a hobby
Hammerspace Storage. Dabbler has a teleporter (mini-gate) built into her cybernetic
arm that allows her to fetch anything from her armory/lab (Halo’s dubbed the effect
Background Aspect “hammerspace.”). Dabbler keeps Soul Reaver there with the rest of her arsenal, equipment,
Self-Taught Polymath and fabricators, and all of that pretty much allows her to produce anything she needs, or
that she needs to make what she needs. Treat Hammerspace Storage as a 2-Point Stunt Pool.
Background Aspect Dabbler can retrieve Soul Reaver for free with an Automatic Action, but she must spend 1 FP
to retrieve any other weapon or piece of gear, Stunts attached or not. (2)
“Been there, done that, and
done that. You know what I Soul Reaver. Gear Stunt. Soul Reaver is a magic-tech 4-handed sword that Dabbler can
mean.” split into two 2-handed swords. One blade is crystalized aether, the other of celestium.
When Dabbler invokes the separated aether or celestium blades when channeling magic or
storing/releasing energy, she gets an additional Free Invoke.
Physical Stress
Mental Stress
Consequences
2
4
6
Team Resources +4
Refresh 4
34
The Archon Files
Profile
Abilities anyone, regardless of sexual orientation. Her mastery of illusion
As David put it, “Basically Dabbler is an alien mutant demon and sexual magnetism alone would make her a serious security
martial artist cyborg psionic tinkerer.” Her PS4 represents a threat. Dabbler presents too many powers to list, derived from
combination of her enhanced physique and martial arts prowess, her own innate racial powers, alien tech, and magic.”
plus her ultratech and magical weapons and tools. Otherwise
History
her abilities are within or close to “human” norm – but those
Dabbler’s real name is classified – it’s Xuriel Shahara Tantalis,
abilities include magic spells, psychic defenses, and an innate
but the public doesn’t know she’s an ET yet, and having a name
succubi “seduction field.” She can engineer PS4 ultratech, but
belonging to no known culture on Earth would be a bit of a
casts spells at PS0 when she’s not boosting her magic with her
giveaway. We don’t know anything definitive about her race
toys. Lore represents her magical knowledge, Academics her
yet. We know succubae aren’t supernaturals of terrestrial origin.
scientific knowledge (+2 Academics might not seem impressive,
Probably. From descriptions of succubae behavior, we also know
but remember her science is built on a much higher tech-base
Dabbler isn’t typical of her race. Clarification: her appetites are
than Earth’s), and Craft her ability to analyze and tinker with
typical of her species, but from what we’ve been able to gather,
both magic and tech.
most succubae tend towards social and performative skill sets
Agent Smith note: “Dabbler blends in (laughably) by wrapping
and pursuits and a succubus adventurer/inventor is rather
herself in a glamor that gives her the appearance of a normal
unusual.
human being. No sort of normal inspection will pierce the
Dabbler’s first public appearance was with Archon’s unveiling,
illusion; even attempting to physically confirm how many
and we have no way of knowing when she arrived on Earth.
arms she has or the presence of horns won’t work (although
Unconfirmed rumors hint that she came to Earth looking
she did enjoy my “inspection”). I can testify first-hand to the
for something, and became fascinated by Earth’s supers (or
effectiveness of her “lust aura,” which is reputed to work on
perhaps fascinated by a super). She is now a “civilian consultant”
for Archon.

Dabbler is a bona fide demon. A succubus to be specific. And an
alien, it’s complicated. Dabbler stands five foot ten on digitigrade
legs ending in cloven hooves, has blue hair that extends to the
middle of her back, a set of under curved rams’ horns extending
from her head approximately where human ears would be, and a
small pair of satyr horns on her forehead. Her skin is purple and
covered in teal stripes and she has four arms, each with three
fingers and a thumb. She is dichromatic; her left eye is blue and
her right is green. When engaging her illusion disguise she’s
“just” an inhumanly beautiful tanned blonde.
Despite usually displaying a “cavalier and playfully sexual
attitude” (Maxima’s been known to call her a “colossal space
floozie”), Dabbler is a hardened adventurer, and is the most
likely to resort to or even open with lethal force. While Halo
and Maxima can likely hit with greater force, with Dabbler’s
casual disregard for her enemies’ lives, and her broad
range of experience and versatile power set, she should
be considered the most deadly member of Arc-SWAT.
35
2: The Cast
Civilian Specialist Math ~ Mathias Johnson

Skills
Superb (+5) Fight
Power Level Paragon
Great (+4) Athletics, Physique
Good (+3) Deceive, Notice, Will
Power Aspect Fair (+2) Burglary, Contacts, Shoot, Stealth
Mixed Martial Arts Master Average (+1) Academics, Drive, Investigate, Provoke, Rapport
Hero Aspect
Stunts / Extras
“Sure you’re not a super?”
Power Scale 0. (+3 Fate Points.) Math’s default is PS0 but he can match up to PS4 (see
Trouble Aspect Superhuman by Training below.).
Easily Distracted Every-Fu. After years of studying virtually every unarmed style and a few armed ones,
Math can recognize any style he faces and adapt his response to counter it. He gets a +2 to
Background Aspect Create an Advantage by spotting fighting weaknesses with Notice, and when he invokes the
created advantage for the bonus, he gets a +3 bonus rather than a +2. He usually does this
Near Supernatural Reaction
while mocking his opponent’s “lame style” and critiquing its weaknesses. (2)
Time
Jacky Chan’s Arsenal. Math considers ranged weapons unsporting, but he’s not stupid and
Background Aspect spent a year learning how to use anything at hand. Shoes, chairs, dropped weapons, rubble,
car doors, credit cards, stuffed toys, in one memorable fight a puzzled (and unharmed)
The Tougher The Opponent,
kitten; with something in his hand or in kicking-shoving range, Math can perform Shoot
The More Fun He’s Having
Actions with his Fight Skill. (2)
Full-Body Weapon. Math has trained to be not only ambidextrous but quadridextrous;
Stress & Consequences he can run on his hands, grip with his toes, fight effectively from any position from prone
Physical Stress facedown to standing. He can also fight effectively robbed of his vision or hearing. All
this allows him to spend an FP to work around a Physical Consequence for the rest of the
Conflict. The Consequence will not be invokable as a Situation Aspect against him, and this
will remove the Free Invoke given to the character inflicting the Consequence if it hasn’t
been used yet. The Physical Consequence is still there, however, and Math must go through
recovery with it as normal.
Mental Stress
Superhuman by Training. Math’s extreme martial arts mastery places him on a default
level of PS1 with Athletics and Fight; he’s a self-made nonpowered superhuman. His extreme
training has also both sharpened his response time and allowed him to focus his “chi” and
target opponent’s weaknesses to such an extent that, dodging or striking at speedsters or
super-strong opponents, he will match an opponent’s PS rating for up to PS4. PS5 and above
Consequences will give opponents the usual bonuses as if matching up against a PS4 opponent. (2)
2
4
6
Team Resources +4
Refresh 6
36
2: The Cast
Profile
Abilities before the Revolutionary War. Math showed a distressingly
Math is not a super, although he makes that hard to believe. unsuppressible love of fighting as a child, and while on his
What he is, is possibly the greatest martial artist in the world. Rumspringa he discovered a dojo teaching jujitsu. He never
He’s a syncretic user of at least a dozen unarmed styles, and looked back. Working part-time jobs, first he traveled from dojo
appears to have incorporated at least the impact-features of chi to dojo, taking the belts and internalizing the styles. Later he
focus in his punches, kicks, and pushes. Additionally, at his level kept traveling, chasing stories of “grand masters,” and still later
of kata training, he’s able to respond instinctively to immediate participating in every fighting tournament he felt would offer
attacks while planning several moves ahead to victory (when him worthy opponents. He participated in the UFC, but quit
he can stay focused on a fight – there are several documented after three matches that ended in under ten seconds, returning
matches he’s lost due to “distraction”). His reflexes, speed, to unsanctioned and often illegal tournaments and street fights.
attack and defensive abilities exceed many members of the Archon approached and persuaded him to join with minimal
team that actually have powers in those categories, making him effort, citing that supervillians would provide challenging
one of the more dangerous members on the team despite him battles for him. So far he’s not impressed, even though he’s
not technically actually having any powers. the only field-member of Arc-SWAT besides Lieutenant Peggy
Kessler who doesn’t have powers.
History Note: Mathias’ documented Amish roots may be nearly as
Math claims to be the 999th in a line of martial artists, which fictitious as his claim of prehistoric martial-hood. Investigation
seems ridiculous unless you assume every generation in reveals his parents were “New Amish,” and what can be learned
his family tree after a distant ancestor fell out of one were about them before that places them in the international martial-
martial artists. The truth is Mathias Johnsen (formerly Janssen) arts world – it appears that they dropped out of it and went into
comes from an Amish family that settled their farm sometime very deep hiding. The theory is that they still did morning kata
exercises out in the barn, and their precocious son picked it up
and evolved it into a bunch of crazy martial arts stuff without
any proper instruction. The theory is substantiated by the
observation that Math has displayed some “secret techniques”
not taught in any style or school he is known to have learned from.

Math is on the “skinny side” compared to the overbuffed look
of most male supers, but he appears to be made out of pure
muscle. He plays up the trope of the
lecherous martial-artist as a major part
of his public personae, but he does have
a major weakness – he’s almost comically
distractable by “revealingly clad women”,
possibly a result to his “sexually repressive”
childhood. It’s not an act; he’s been knocked to the
losers’ bracket in several tournaments and been KO’d in a
super-fight because of it.
37
2: The Cast
Civilian Specialist Zephan Zoeng

Power Level Normal Human Skills
Superb (+5) Lore
Power Aspect Great (+4) Investigate, Notice
Academic Mage Good (+3) Craft, Resources, Will
Fair (+2) Contacts, Empathy, Fight, Shoot
Hero Aspect Average (+1) Academics, Burglary, Deceive, Physique, Rapport
“Who am I? I’m just a scholar
of antiquities.”
Stunts / Extras
Trouble Aspect Power Scale 0. (+3 Fate Points.)
“Now I wonder what this Extreme Aetheric Sensitivity. Zephan gets a +2 to his Notice Skill when it comes to
could be?” sensing and analyzing magical energy (aether).
Background Aspect “I’ve seen something like this before…” With Zephan’s broad scholarship, when
analyzing new phenomena even tangentially related to magic or folklore he gets a +2 to
Avid collector and crypto-
Overcome or Create an Advantage with Lore.
zoologist
“Don’t I know your cousin?” After all of Zephan’s travels, he’s beyond well-connected
Background Aspect in the supernatural world. He gets a +2 to Create an Advantage with Contacts from some
connection made or knowledge gleaned.
“I read about this in Li Fong’s
tome…” More Charms than a Mysterious Chinese Antique Shop. Zephan’s collection of
magical artifacts, inherited and added to, is truly astounding, giving him a 5-point Stunt
Pool dedicated to Gear Stunts (named items he can invoke for a +3 bonus in addition to
Stress & Consequences the Aspect Permission they give him to perform spells, etc.). Zephan may swap out the
artifacts he carries with a successful Create an Advantage Action with Resources (it helps
Physical Stress
to invoke one or more of his Character Aspects). Shifts of success will determine how many
Stunt Points becomes available (up to 5, including Stunt Points spent on Power Scale) for his
suddenly-useful acquisitions. He usually keeps a couple of defensive charms on hand, but
he can always put them away when retrieving that Helm of All-Sight from his collection. (5)
Note: Zephan’s been studying the occult for a long time, and most of his listed Skills,
Mental Stress
including Fight and Shoot, are treated as applications of his magic (this is the reason he has
his own Resources Skill).
Consequences
2
4
6
Team Resources +4
Refresh 5
38
2: The Cast
Profile
Apparently anyone can learn to use magic, just like anyone can Zephan appears to be a Chinese American in his late 50’s. In
learn to play the piano, but extreme sensitivity to the Earth’s reality he almost completely ironed out his accent, changed
aethersphere is a gift only a small percentage of humans have. his name, and forged a genealogy. (The US government helped
The power to manipulate large amounts of aether is also a gift – with the forgery and cover-identity to hide him from Chi-Com
albeit one that can be trained up like a muscle – and sensitivity mages.) Although he is capable of “tactical magic,” he vastly
and strength don’t always go hand in hand. Zephan is extremely prefers research and new discoveries. He prefers to think before
sensitive to aether, but not very strong, magically. Consequently, speaking, letting others carry the conversational water unless
he is very much a scholar-mage rather than a warrior-mage. he has a point to make, and is guilty of playing up the Inscrutable
Which doesn’t mean he’s powerless; Zephan is a practiced spell- Asian stereotype. He plays it so straight that, shockingly, he’s a
caster and for the heavy stuff, well there’s artifacts for that and huge fan of English, Chinese, and Chinese-to-English puns. He
he knows his artifacts. counts a point whenever he can drop one into a conversation
so smoothly his hearers can’t decide if it was intentional or not.
History
Zephan became aware of the reality of magic quite early in life;
his family’s home had been built on the ruins of an ancient Daoist
monastery that had had a very interesting history, and it’s hard
to ignore the stuff when you live surrounded by the residue of
ancient enchantments. That, plus the family had an ancient
vampire as an ancestor who visited from time to time. Zephan’s
“great-grandfather” noticed his potential early, and arranged for
him to go to Hong Kong to become a student to a venerable
Chinese master who had survived the communist purges. He
left Hong Kong when Great Britain returned the port city to
China and the purge of non-party mages extended to the island.
Zephan preserved his teacher’s library and subsequently spent
his life studying magic and the species that use it, amassing a
huge collection of artifacts and tomes. He is possibly one of the
most knowledgeable mages on Earth. Not long after moving
to the US, he came to the attention of Archon – and learned
about them – during a large-scale incident in San Francisco’s
Chinatown area. Offering his services in return for access to
whatever magical events and artifacts they encountered in the
field, as well as training gifted individuals they might discover,
he has subsequently found himself in the position of Archon’s
resident “venerable master.”
Zephan’s relationship with the Twilight Council is somewhat
strained. The council considers all things supernatural under its
purview, but although it qualifies as a truly widespread secret
society it doesn’t come close to maintaining control of any
government. That necessitates cooperation (and the occasional
bribery, blackmail, discreet assassination…). Zephan is under
the authority of the council as far as keeping The Secret from
public knowledge, but answers to and is protected by Archon
as well.
39
The Archon Files
Legal Stuff
Grrl Power is © 2010, Dave Barrack; created by Dave Barrack. This work is based on Fate Condensed© 2020 (found at http://www.
faterpg.com/), product of Evil Hat Productions, LLC, developed, authored, and edited by PK Sullivan, Ed Turner, and Fred Hicks, and
licensed for our use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a.
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the

A Grrl Power Superhero Sourcebook

Jason Mitchell (Order #37325173)

“A comic about a crazy nerdette that becomes a superheroine.

The Archon Files is not a rulebook or complete setting book; it gives

Leaving Archon Reality

Superheroing in The Archon Reality

Archon Campaign Dial Settings & Rules

Refresh and Stunts (FC p.10)

Stress (FC p.12)

Setting Aspects (FC p.27) WtC:RPG Attributes Conversion

Major Super Hiro ~ Hiro Nakamura

Hero Aspect Stunts / Extras

2nd Lieutenant Mr. Amorphous ~ Gary Gleeson

Trouble Aspect Stunts / Extras

Appearance and Personality

1st Lieutenant Peggy Kessler

Trouble Aspect Stunts / Extras

Appearance and Personality

Corporal Achilles ~ Harold Harper

Appearance and Personality

Corporal Anvil ~ Kenya Landry

Hero Aspect Stunts / Extras

Corporal Harem ~ Daphne DeShantis

Corporal Heatwave ~ Brook Falls

Explosive Sublimation. Against non-living targets, Heatwave can heat a pinpoint on

Appearance and Personality

Corporal Stalwart ~ Stewart Aegir

Appearance and Personality

Recruit Halo ~ Sydney Scoville, Jr.

Recruit Jiggawat ~ Azarin Nazari

Recruit Varia ~ Xochitl Xochiqetzal

Civilian Specialist Dabbler ~ Xuriel Shahara Tantalis

Appearance and Personality

Civilian Specialist Math ~ Mathias Johnson

Appearance and Personality

Civilian Specialist Zephan Zoeng

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