Black Paladin:PL: 12
Str 14 [20] (+2/+5) Dex 14 (+2) Con 14 (+2) Int 14 (+2) Wis 14 (+2) Cha 14 (+2)
Skills: Bluff 8 (+10), Computers 6 (+8.), Craft (Electronic) 6 (+8.), Craft (Mechanical) 6 (+8.), Disable Device 8 (+10), Gather Information 6 (+8.), Intimidate 12 (+14), Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 4 (+6), Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 6 (+8.), Knowledge (Tactics) 8 (+10), Knowledge (Technology) 8 (+10), Ride 4 (+6), Notice 6 (+8.), Sense Motive 10 (+12), Survival 4 (+6), Stealth 6 (+8.)
Feats: All-Out Attack, Attack Spec. (Swords) 2, Distract [Intimidate], Dodge Focus 2, Equipment 6, First Strike, Follow-Up Strike, Improved Block, Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Startle, Takedown Attack
Powers: Device [the Black Blade] 5 [easy to lose] (Power Feat: Indestructible)
--Strike 7 (Extra: Penetrating 12); (Power Feats: Improved Critical 4, Improved Sunder, Mighty)
Device [Ebony Plate Armor] 11 [hard to lose]
--Enhanced Strength 6
--Enhanced Fortitude Save 5
--Enhanced Reflex Save 5
--Immunity 5 [Environmental Cold, Environmental Heat, Environmental Pressure, Suffocation]
--Mind Shield 5
--Protection 12 (Extra: Impervious)
--Sensory Shield 3 [audio & visual]
--Super Strength 1
Gadgets 6 [easy to lose]
~Normally weapons designed to look like maces & lances~Saves: Toughness +14*/+2 [*Impervious Armor]
Fort +5 [+10]
Ref +5 [+10]
Will +8 [+13]
Combat: Attack +8/+12 (Swords)
Damage +12 (Black Blade-critical 16-20)
Defense +10 (+4 flat-footed)
Initiative +6
Equipment: Skybike [Strength: 20; Speed: 4 [air; 100 mph]; Defense: 10; Toughness: 5; Size: Medium]
Headquarters [20 pts to spend as needed]
Drawbacks: Vulnerable [White (Good) Aligned Magics; +100% damage] (-4 pts)
Costs: Attributes 24+ Skills 27+ Feats 22+ Powers 100+ Saves 12+ Combat 32- Drawbacks 4= 213 pts.Complications:Arrogant Bastard: Black Paladin had been around since WWII, dealt with all manner of heroes and dabbled in dark magics his whole lifetime. There is little he doesn’t think he can defeat and he makes sure that anyone facing him knows it as well.
Enemy ~VIPER: Black Paladin will always take any given opportunity to attack, raid, trouble or hassle the criminal organization known as VIPER if given the chance. Sometimes he specifically will target their Nests if he learns of their location or he will hire a group of criminals to strike in his stead (though that is rare as the Black Paladin prefers that VIPER knows it is him behind the assault).
Old Time Code, Kinda: Black Paladin tries to at least appear to be of noble thinking, he will at first attempt to uphold the Code of Chivalry. That is until things start to go against him and then he disregards it as needed to suit his goals.
Normal Life: Black Paladin’s identity as Jason Barrett isn’t known to any law enforcement agencies.
Real Name: Jason Barrett
Height: 6’ 2” (out of armor) 6’ 6” (in armor)
Weight: 218 lbs (out of armor) 300 lbs (in armor)
Hair: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Background: Back during the time of knights it was common for favored knights to be given lordship over a small area. To rule it almost as their own kingdom in a way: the lord would provide protection to those living on his lands, collect taxes for the realm he was aligned to, as well as hearing local legal matters brought up by the residents and deliver an educated resolution to the problem. Often times it worked, sometimes it did not.
Some lords would become corrupt with their power and would take to ruling over their domains with an iron gauntleted hand. Most of the time the lords would be dealt with by the force of their former realm, be stripped of title and rank and cast out as a nomad while there were some who would not give up their newly gained power without also giving up their life. This is the story of a lord who not only managed to repel that attack but eventually defeated him and claimed many of the other lands of his former realm as his prize, this is the story of Lord Gavin DeGiles.
Exactly when DeGiles decided to turn his lordship into a kingdom isn't clear but once he set himself upon that long road there was little to stop him. Every step was carefully planned out and it took him years to achieve his goal but once his rule was established DeGiles wasted no time in formally forming his army, mostly comprised of men he'd brought in over the years as he was given more land to watch over and establishing his own banner throughout his lands. It was suspected by many that most of his fall of morality and rise to power was brought on by his consort, a suspected sorceress named Isolane, who had worked her wiles upon DeGiles in a drive of her own to be a person of power even if only by proxy.
The truth is much worst.
DeGiles wasn't manipulated in any way, all Isolane did was give him the support he needed as DeGiles feared the repercussions of declaring his independence and Isolane worked her arcane knowledge and skills towards enchanting a suit of armor and great sword so that DeGiles would be unbeatable in personal combat. As well as creating potions that enhanced the abilities of DeGiles' men so that they would be stronger and more physically able than any they would face, effectively creating men who could fight, and win against, superior numbers. It wasn't until the Grail Knight, a wondering hero of that time, set his sights on the pair that they encountered problems. The Grail Knight was in possession of both the sword Caliburn as well as the Spear of Destiny, together those weapons allowed him to challenge DeGiles on more than equal footing. In fact it was the Grail Knight that then held the upper hand, DeGiles was unable to defeat the holy warrior. So Isolane summoned a great dragon to deal with their foe only to watch as the Grail Knight finally defeated the beast after a several day-long battle that ravaged much of the country side and then proceeded to come after her, even giving her a small injury.
But it was the sight of Isolane threatened that brought DeGiles' temper to bear and he attacked the Grail Knight with a fervor he'd never had before. And though he managed to put his foe on the defensive it was his own anger that undid DeGiles as the Grail Knight took advantage of his aggressiveness and fatally wounded him. As Isolane screamed her protest and ran to DeGiles' side, the Grail Knight simply sheathed his weapon and took his leave of their soon to be crumbling kingdom as he was sure DeGiles would be soon dead.
But magic and love is a strange and powerful combination, and Isolane was able to keep DeGiles alive for another six days with her knowledge of medicine and magic as she fought off various entities that came to try and calm him. In the end though Isolane simply didn't have the power to save her lover and settled for saving his soul from damnation, bonding it to his enchanted ebony armor and with her last living act Isolane hid it from those that would try and search for it. In the following months DeGiles' men fought amongst themselves to take his place but none could find where it had been hidden and eventually DeGiles' former realm came and cleared out the remains of his army and retook his lands. Then over the following decades the memory of DeGiles deeds faded and he became the stuff of legends and lore.
It wasn't until World War II that the ebony armor black great sword was discovered hidden deep away in a cave in by an American soldier who had become separated from his unit. Astounded by his discovery the young man reached out to touch the armor and blade in awe and he accidentally cut himself on the sword, thereby unknowingly triggering the final spell Isolane had cast upon the two items as the American's soul was ripped to shreds by DeGiles' more powerful spirit and after centuries of being asleep, the Black Paladin walked the Earth once again.
DeGiles spent the next few weeks roaming the country side, acclimating himself with the world he now found himself in as well as picking through the remains of his host's memories learning everything he could. Seeing the effects that the war was having on the countries involved he reasoned that America would be a good place for him to start anew, but knew he had no means of getting there. So he offered his skills and sword to the Nazi's, an offer they took him up upon as they had few superhuman agents at that time and his first few missions brought him into conflict with the Allies of Freedom, a group that he later came to realize he had underestimated though DeGiles did manage to escape each confrontation.
Eventually DeGiles was sent to America to deal with the 'threat' the Liberty League represented to Germany's plans but it was after his first loss to that group that DeGiles decided to abandon the Nazi's cause and tend to his own plans. Many heroes of the time then considered that being sent to America was DeGiles' plan the whole time, but he's never confirmed this theory ever.
For several years DeGiles wandered across the United States, seeing first hand everything there was to this new and strange country as well as slowly building himself several bunkers in various parts of the country and it wasn't until the 1960s that he came back onto the world of superhumans, but this time he was not alone. During his travels DeGiles had encountered several people who were of similar criminal mindset to his own and each was gifted with a variety of super powers, men and women who felt cheated by life in general but were in possession of some very unique abilities. It was during those years that DeGiles trained this group into a team that went on to be one of the most challenging gatherings of super-criminals seen in many years: the Masters of Fortune.
The original members of the group were Hellios (a scientist with the ability to manipulate various spectrums of light & heat), Crimson Archer (a master marksman with any ranged weapon), Crush (a biker with superhuman strength & durability), Phantazam (the mind of a deceased psychic that sustained itself by force of will alone for over a decade plus), Lobo (a mutant who was stuck in a wolf/human hybrid form), and Slick (a con-man with the ability to affect friction). For the majority of that decade the Masters dealt mostly with the newly formed Freedom League, though even now and then members of the Masters would take on their own side projects and be encountered by solo heroes.
Eventually though the membership changed, as is the way of such groups as old members leave or retire or even the occasional death (though that was a rare thing), with new members Cateran (an immortal, super strong swordswoman), Frost and Sunstroke (mutant brothers with opposite styles of energy [ice & fire]), Jade (a constructed creature made of enchanted gemstone) just to name some of them. Overall the Masters of Fortune was a tool to the Black Paladin, a major piece on his chess board in his plans to rule a kingdom of his own, and while he never truly succeed in that ultimate goal the Masters did manage to pull off some impressive small victories over the course of their careers. But what finally ended the Masters of Fortune was the disappearance of the Black Paladin in the early 1970s: he simply stopped committing crimes. Soon people began to talk about how nobody had heard anything from him, the Masters had went on without any word from DeGiles in several months and began to slowly return to their normal habits (i.e.: committing crimes) and eventually the Masters fell apart without the Black Paladin's forceful personality guiding them as they fell victim to infighting and disagreements.
What very few people know is that when your spirit inhabits a body it was not born too there is a limit to how long you can inhabit it, as DeGile discovered the hard way as his stolen body finally began to reject his spirit. Forcing it back into the deep slumber of his enchanted ebony armor and only active for very short times (mostly a period of a few days at most), which DeGiles used to gather information on what had been going on in the world while he'd been asleep. It wasn't until the middle of the 1980s until DeGiles heard something he'd not heard in a very long time: the voice of another person talking to him. And that voice was offering DeGiles something......a partnership?
Gavin DeGiles, tired of the sleep of the armor agreed and found himself then sharing a body with it's original host, a man named Michael Mendron, and he was a wizard. That was how he communicated with DeGiles and managed to somehow keep his soul intact when DeGiles entered the body - by magic!
Michael Mendron was a mage of respectable power and drive but his means were what earned him the moniker of 'the Black Mage'. Mendron was willing to cross any line, break any taboo, do any deed to accomplish his goals. And he wanted to be a powerful and feared man and the Black Paladin was his ticket to those things, you see Mendron was a descendant of Isolane's bloodline and her gift for the mystical arts stayed within her descendents and it was passed down from parent to child over the generations, especially the tale of their most famous ancestor, Isolane.
When Mendron first saw pictures of the Black Paladin he instantly recognized the armor and it's place in his family's history and set about learning all he could about the villain, wanting to know if those stories were true or if the armor merely had magical enhancements as it would be a useful tool in his personal quest. It took Mendron many years to find out what had happened to the Black Paladin after his disappearance and a few more to then locate the armor, but he finally did find them he made sure not to touch the armor. Instead he cast a spell that allowed him to communicate with the spirit of DeGiles and offered him a deal: to share his body with the fallen knight, to not have his soul torn from his body and cast out. Mendron promised that together with their skills and knowledge they would be unstoppable. Intrigued by the offer and ready to agree to almost anything to escape his magical slumbering, DeGiles agreed to the deal and within a few day's time Mendron cast the spell and the Black Paladin was soon back in action for a new generation to fear.
Most people think that this version of the Black Paladin is either the original that has somehow managed to come back or is an heir of some kind, perhaps a relation to the original or an apprentice maybe. In the end though it didn't matter as the Black Paladin operated mostly in Europe for that part of his career: dealing with the British sponsored group Queen & Country as well as EuroStar, the other big team in Europe in the 1980s and early 1990s. Many of the Black Paladin's crimes had a mystical theme to them (thanks to Mendron being the one to come up with most of them), and while the majority of his plans were stopped the Black Paladin managed to succeed on several of his small goals that weren't obvious to those he opposed.
The most important one of these was the theft of the Dragon's Eye, a massive ruby the size of a man's fist from a museum in Prague. Legends stated that many of those mythical beasts were locked away in the pocket dimension the Eye housed, and Mendron knew of a very specific dragon that had been imprisoned in the Eye. A dragon that had been said to be a skilled wizard in it's own right known by the name Mathias and he was one of the greater dragons of his time, a leader among those massive and powerful creatures. Mendron had heard tales of Mathias’ power and skill and wanted the dragon to help him perform a select few rituals.
The first of which was to help him sever the bond Mendron had created between his body and DeGiles’ soul. After so many years of housing two fully manifested spirits Mendron’s body had begun to waste away but the mage knew that the corrupted knight would not go quietly. Mendron realized he would need to find someone to house the spirit of the Black Paladin and that the ritual would call for more power than Mendron could provide, thus his reason for helping to free Mathias from the Dragon’s Eye.
When Mendron contacted Mathias inside the dimensional prison, the elder dragon was intrigued by the offer put forth. Enough that he agreed to help fuel the ritual Mendron needed to perform to save his life, something that left the dragon weakened and still trapped in the Dragon’s Eye but owed a serious favor by the Black Mage. But the time that had been spent in piercing the layers of protection woven into the sub-dimension of the Dragon’s Eye took many years, even for a mage as skilled and powerful as Mendron and it took him the rest of the 1990s and well into the early years of the new millennium before he had managed to establish a solid means of communication with Mathias.
All Mendron left to do was find someone who would be willing to become the new host to the Black Paladin. Jason Barrett was a scientist that had been in the employ of VIPER that had become unhappy with his arrangement with his employers and was secretly seeking a way to free himself from it. Somehow Mendron had managed to find out about Barrett and his situation and carefully approached him with the offer of enough power to make sure that VIPER wouldn’t be able to force Barrett back into their ranks. Barrett couldn’t have agreed any faster than what he did (though Barrett doesn’t know that after long enough time his body will begin to wither as Mendron’s has done).
For now however the new Black Paladin has struck out on his own, using the funds DeGiles had stashed away on his own centuries ago and they have parted ways with Mendron in an amicable manner so that Barrett and DeGiles can reestablish the reputation of the Black Paladin.
I’ve only read a couple of Sleepwalker’s old series but it was an interesting idea for a character and I thought I’d take a try at building him. Basically he’s street-level character who can only come out at night (which is when all the bad stuff goes on anyways so it works). The big thing that stood out to me was that he was undercapped as I always got the impression that against goons & normal crooks Sleepwalker has no trouble but put him against a 'normal' super-crook then he's gonna have a bit of a harder time, but that's just me.
