Undertow (formerly Tsunami), Dr. Aesculapius Scott

Power Level 10 (150 pp)

 

Abilities: Str 10 (+0), Dex 14 (+2), Con 14 (+2), Int 18 (+4), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 12 (+1)

[22 pp]

 

Saves: Toughness +2 in human or water form, +11 (3 Impervious) in ice form, +8 (+2 flat-footed) in steam form, Fortitude +2, Reflex +2, Will +5

[3 pp]

 

Skills: Bluff 4 (+5), Climb 1 (+1), Computers 4 (+8), Concentration 4 (+6), Craft (structural) 4 (+5), Craft (artistic) 4 (+5), Diplomacy 2 (+3), Disguise 0 (+1), Drive 1 (+3), Escape Artist 0 (+2), Gather Information 2 (+3), Handle Animal 0 (+1), Intimidate 2 (+3), Investigate 2 (+6), Knowledge (earth sciences) 2 (+6), Knowledge (history) 4 (+8), Knowledge (life sciences) 6 (+10), Knowledge (physical sciences) 1 (+5), Knowledge (arcane lore) 5 (+9), Knowledge (technology) 1 (+5), Knowledge (behavioral sciences) 1 (+5), Knowledge (business) 1 (+5), Knowledge (civics) 2 (+6), Language (English, native), Language (German), Language (French), Language (Latin), Medicine 8 (+10), Notice 4 (+6), Profession (teacher) 4 (+6), Profession (researcher) 4 (+6), Profession (writer) 2 (+4), Search 2 (+6), Sense Motive 0 (+2), Stealth 1 (+3), Survival 2 (+4), Swim 5 (+5)

[22 pp, 88 ranks in skills]

 

Feats: Skill Mastery (Medicine, Knowledge (life sciences), Knowledge (arcane lore), Swim), Artificer, Inventor, Ritualist, Master Plan, Connected, Benefit (wealth), Attack Focus 2 (melee), Improved Trip, Improved Throw, Dodge Focus 2

[13 pp]

 

Powers: Immunity 1 (breathe underwater), Super-Senses 2 (Detect (water), Awareness (magical powers)), Element Control (Water) 4 (Str 20, or 25 if concentrating as a Full Action, Flaw: Range (ranged)), Super-Movement 1 (water-walking), Environmental Control 4 (minor distraction, DC: 5 check required, light rain, 50’ radius, Power Feat: Alternate Power – Environmental Control 2 (major distraction, DC: 10, driving rains in a 10’ radius)), Magic 1 (Healing 1, Flaw: Limited (all ‘spells’ requires alchemical ritual components, special elixir or salve for healing, scrying liquid for ESP, etc.), Power Feat: Alternate Power – ESP (visual) 1),

 

Alternate Form 12 (Liquid water, sustained duration, Insubstantial 1, Concealment (normal sight) 2 (Flaw: Limited (only in water)), Swimming 4 (25 MPH, Power Feat: Alternate Power – Speed 1 (10 MPH) and Super-Movement 1 (Sure-Footed)),

Strike 3 (Extras: Aura, Linked to Trip), Trip 6 (Extras: Aura, Knockback, Linked to Strike, Power Feats: Improved Trip, Improved Throw Alternate Power - Suffocate 10),

Immunity 32 (critical hits, water-based attacks, environmental cold, heat, pressure and radiation, hunger / thirst, breathe underwater, aging, disease, need for sleep and lethal physical damage (treat as nonlethal damage), Flaw: Duration (sustained)), Elongation 3, Power Feats: Alternate Power – Alternate Form (solid ice*) 12, Alternate Power – Alternate Form (scalding gaseous steam#) 12)

 

*Alternate Power Feat: Alternate Form 12 (Solid (ice), sustained.  Density 6 (Enhanced Strength 12, Protection 3 (Impervious), Immovable 3, 5x weight), Strike 1 (freezing icy blades for fingers, Power Feat: Mighty), Super-Movement 3 (Permeate (Flaw: Limited (only through ice), Sure-Footed 2 (Flaw: Limited (only on ice)), Speed 1 (‘skate’ along the ground at 10 MPH), Immunity 15 (disease, poison, aging, need for sleep, breathe underwater, hunger / thirst, environmental cold, water-based attacks, critical hits, cold-based attacks, Flaw: Duration (sustained)), Snare 12 (Flaw: Range (touch), Power Feats: Alternate Power - Trip 12 (Extra: Knockback, Flaw: Range (touch)), Alternate Power – Corrosion 6, Alternate Power – Create Object 1 (ice objects, Extra: Continuous, Flaw: Range (touch), Power Feats: Precise, Progression 1 (10’ cube)),  Protection 6, Environmental Control 3 (hamper movement (icy surfaces, ˝ move in a 25’ radius), Power Feat: Alternate Power – Environmental Control 3 (extreme cold in a 25’ radius))

 

#Alternate Power Feat: Alternate Form 12 (Gaseous (steam), sustained.  Insubstantial 2, Flight 2 (25 MPH), Concealment 2 (visual, Flaw: Partial), Elongation 2 (10’, Extra: Action (free)), Immunity 16 (critical hits, aging, disease, poison, environmental heat, high pressure and radiation, breathe underwater, starvation / thirst, need for sleep, heat / fire damage, Flaw: Duration (sustained)), Strike 6 (Extras: Penetrating, Aura, Partial Extra: Area 2 (burst), Power Feat: Selective), Obscure 2 (visual and thermal, 10’ radius, Extra: Aura, Flaws: Partial, Range (touch), Power Feat: Selective), Enhanced Mobility 7 (Dodge Focus 1, Defensive Roll 6))

[76 pp]

 

Drawback: Involuntary Transformation (If in an Alternate Form, changes state when struck by Heat/Fire or Cold attacks.  If in Liquid form, turns to Ice if hit by Cold, or to Steam if hit by Fire.  If in Ice form, turns to Water if hit by Fire.  If in Steam form, turns to Liquid if hit by Cold.  He cannot change back to the form he has been transformed out of until the Hit from that attack is healed, although he can become human at any time.)

[-2]

 

Combat: Attack +6 melee (+10 with trip attempts), +4 ranged, Damage +0 in hand to hand in human form, +3 in liquid form (with Trip 6 linked), or by Suffocate, +7 in ice form, or by Trip 12, Snare 12 or Corrosion 6, +6 (Penetrating) to all in 10’ in steam form,

Defense +6 (+2 flat-footed), +7 (+2 flat-footed) in steam form, Initiative +2

[16 pp]

 

Attributes 22 + Saves 3 + Skills 22 + Feats 13 + Powers 76 + Combat 16 – Drawback 2 = 150 pp

 

“Now really, that is no way to speak young lady!  I’m afraid that I shall not accede to your request.”

 

Undertow can assume the forms of ice, water or vapor (or scalding steam) of equal mass to his own size.  In icy form, his touch chills, in water form, he tends to bowl people over, and as a cloud of steam, he expands to up to 216 times his normal volume, can move through the air and burn and suffocate the unwary.  He often changes forms many times in the course of a combat, to disorient his opponents, change tactical viewpoints and exploit observed weaknesses.  He often targets items, to freeze or soak, in an attempt to take advantages away from foes.  Undertow has crafted a special form of cloth, woven from his allies own hair (vat-synthesized from clippings) and ingeniously tailored and dyed, that is immune to their respective powers (or, more accurately, reforms when they resume fleshly form).  Gravestone has a half-dozen suits made of his own hair (so, yes, he wears a hair-shirt), as hard as steel wire, and not useful as clothing for anyone who lacks his freakish strength, as it remains as durable as ever.  The doctor also managed to craft a leather-substitute for Gravestone’s shoes, belt and gloves, from cultures force-grown from his own rocky hide, but the others haven’t gone that far and tend to wear ‘cloth’ slippers or ‘denim’ sneakers of the treated hair (or go barefoot, in Miasma’s case)…

 

Dr. Aesculapius Scott (everyone calls him Dr. Scott, except for Gravestone, who calls him ‘Alfred’ or 'Doc' and Ariel, who, in private, calls him ‘lappy’) is balding (he shaves what shreds of hair he has left, rather than go through the pretense that what is left matters), wears tiny bifocal spectacles (that he takes off to avoid their loss when he changes form, and needed only to read in the beginning.  He was working on ‘growing’ a pair from bone and retinal scrapings, but decided that Lasik was much less effort.  His current ‘glasses’ are pure affectation).  He is 5 ft., 7, and somewhat heavy-set, resulting in his preferring to assume other forms in combat, as he is not terribly imposing in his human form.  Due to his shortage of hair, his outfits are usually brief, shorts, t-shirts and vests, with slipper-like footwear.  He would prefer flowing lab coats and full suits, but hasn’t managed to vat-grow enough hair from his thin supply.

 

‘Doctor’ Scott is an actual professor, not of history, archaeology or the occult, but of biochemistry and genetics, having been researching the new excavation not for lost artifacts or cultural information, but for physical residues of the living individuals of that time, to help establish certain genomic timetables for various changes in the domesticated agricultural crops and work-animals (and, incidentally, humanity itself).  His team was not gathering pot-sherds or tracing inscriptions, but was searching for fragments of bone, crop seeds and items of fur and cloth from animals and plants of the time, to be broken down and genetically compared to modern species of cotton, flax, wool, etc. to track the genetic modifications engendered by primitive man upon his environment.

 

Dr. Scott has a vary limited palette of unique characteristics, having always been obsessed with his work, so much so that he barely noticed when his wife left him, years back.  He ended up putting up a cot in his laboratory at the university that employed him, as he was prone to falling asleep in situ.  Colleagues and students took it upon themselves to bring him meals, and his house would have fallen into disrepair, had one of his students, Ariel Frazier, not become his live-in girlfriend, and taken to dragging him home at night.  He’s still somewhat perplexed as to how that all came about, and became less amused when her lout of a brother began showing up with his equally loutish friends...  Still, as he began to associate with his companions, he seemed to pick up traits and characteristics, which an observant viewer will note are cribbed directly from his team-mates.  His seeming fondness for microbrews, expensive cigars and quart-a-day coffee habit may have made him have more in common with his allies, but he still seems to lack individual quirks, and at the end of the day, he sometimes wonders if that is all that he is, a shallow reflection of his allies lives and personalities, lacking the strength of will to forge one of his own.  (Ironically, he is extremely strong-willed, and yet eerily adaptive.)