The Demon was one of the originals from Crossover Earth. When Ken St. Andre started it I ran my own version of the 80's Hobgoblin. Ken's CE was a play-by-mail of dueling stories based on known heroes, we each picked a hero and a villain and send in monthly reports of nefarious or good deeds, and would compete with story outlines against other players for who got to carry the narrative forward. When Ken handed it over to me I moved some characters toward more original takes, and Hobgoblin became The Demon. Decades later the Demon got to make a new appearance:
The Demon (alias Devon Sloane)
Superhuman (Bioenhanced/Tech
Origin) – Level 6 (18)
Motive: Get rich, work the arms market, get revenge for the death
of his uncle, the original Demon
Environment: Wherever there is wealth for the taking
Health: 60
Damage Inflicted: 6 points, by cypher, or gauntlet claws 12 points
Armor: 3
(armored costume)
Movement: short;
flying long (with Demon Wing)
Modifications: 3 Shifts Strength-Might based defense and tasks at Level 9;
2 Shifts Attack (gauntlet claws) at +6 damage
Powers: Super strength, speed, gear (suit, demon wing and grenade shooting gauntlets).
The Demon has enhanced strength from the Metahuman Soldier formula after undergoing the treatment in the government Super Soldier program. Devon was discharged from the military after his body rejected much of the supersoldier treatment, leaving him with debilitating deformities that some likened to a “demonic mask.” It was with some irony following his discharge that Devon realized he was following in his uncle Jack Sloane’s footsteps….literally….he took to visiting his uncle in prison. Jack Sloane was himself still in peak physical condition thanks to his stolen supersoldier formula which he had used on himself decades ago, but he was crippled from the takedown in 2006 when the League finally apprehended him and would never walk again. During these visits, before Sloane mysteriously died, he left key information to his nephew about the location of his hidden base.
Devon took his uncle’s secret information and found the Demon’s old base. He uncovered the original gear of his relative, and after finding the last copies of the Demon Serum he decided to ditch the treatments provided by the military and injected his uncle’s formula into himself. The formula didn’t fix his gruesome, demonic appearance but it dramatically enhanced his strength and speed, at the cost of his remaining sanity. Now enhanced and geared up, he works in illegal metahuman drugs and arms trades.
The Demon makes a good low to mid level thug for a superhero game. He's not the end boss....he's the guy the end boss hires to do the dirty work. For most mission the Demon relies on his gang of personal thugs, who often wear demonic halloween masks and brandish assault rifles. A typical demon thug is a Level 4 or 5 ex-soldier or ex-con, usually hooked up on one of the synthetic chemical mixes that The Demon brews specifically to force loyalty and remove any sense of self-preservation instinct.
The Demon Suit (Level 1D6+2): this armored (3 points) suit is flexible and considered
medium armor by weight. It's got a short cape, a demonic mask, and includes a
respirator to resist toxins as well as breathe underwater. (Artifact, Depletes
on 1 in 100)
The Demon Wing (Level 1D6+2): this monstrous jet-fueled air glider is a rocket waiting to
explode. The original design was a black ops device designed for one-man
insertions into hostile territory, but the small one-man glider wing is now a
backpack-equipped set of vile looking metallic demon wings which allow for some
mobility in flight. The wearer can move in a straight line a long distance and
can make one positional change for the next round after that move. If a PC gets
a lucky shot on the wearer of the Demon Wing then on a 19 as a special effect
the wing can lose control; on a 20 the engine explodes, dealing it's level in
damage. (Artifact, Depletes on 1 in 20)
Demon Grenades (Level variable): these are cyphers that the demon likes to use. They are usually Gas Bombs, Detonation (Pressure, Massive or Flash) and Poison (Explosive). He usually has a bandolier with at least 2 of each. (cypher, one use)
The Demon is employing a dozen thugs for the job, driving getaway SUVs to load the gear in to.
If the Demon is captured or somehow reasoned with he will relay what happened: Blackfire had him, when four insectoid “aliens” or something like that phased out of nowhere, nabbed him using some sort of light-emitting gem that burned away the shadow fire, then they pulled him in to “wherever.” Saving the Demon’s bacon. He’ll describe the aliens in pretty good detail….they sound like an old record from the League files of a creature from 1992 called the Hive, which were an undisclosed alien threat that was stopped by the American Agent, Lady Liberty and Arbalest after the League disbanded. According to the story, Arbalest is the only one still functioning…American Agent disappeared in Afghanistan in 2009 (reportedly KIA) and Lady Liberty retired in 1999, and no one knows her identity….so the log on what happened basically states the Hive was an extraterrestrial threat of unknown origin, which seemed to have supernatural speed powers and the ability to phase in and out of reality. Sounds like the suspects….
The Devil’s Graveyard Stage 1, The Microverse: finding this island is impossible, but Dr. Futurity explains that while the island exists outside of normal time and space, it can be reached via the Bleed, the Interstitial transition zone through which other dimensions can be reached. The best way to get there, according to Futurity, is through the technology of Dr. William Holst at the Advanced Theoretical Physics Institute (ATPI), which has a major site in San Francisco. Holst is a retired hero; he used to be the adventurer known as the Quark, and used his unique ability to shrink to subatomic dimensions to learn new physics; much of his science, Futurity explains, was dependent on tethering to the Interstitial realm of the Bleed, to allow for him to avoid quantum destabilization. Quark used a ship to get there…..a ship that could move through the Bleed.
Dr. Futurity’s disc can take them to the ATPI Building in Silicon Valley, but from there it is revealed that Holst has gone missing as well! However his assistance, Dr. Tanya Reddings, needs the PCs help to bring him back….she thinks his Quantum vessel may have stalled out. She is willing to send them in, using a retrieval ship with repair equipment, to bring Holst back.
Holst is indeed trapped in the
Quantum Realm, but he’s been captured in the Microverse by an entity called
Between. Between is part of a quantum species of beings from another dimension
that literally slice through the quantum fuzz, and thrive on the probabilistic
nature of our universe. They are deadly….they can unravel a living being to its
component quarks with ease. Holst has deliberately sabotaged his ship while he
stalls for time, as they try to force him to show them how to use the vessel to
enter the macroverse.
NEXT: The Quark!
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