A popular daytime tele- vision talk show sends troubled teens to “boot camp” to straighten them out (and gives overstressed housewives with teenaged children the vicarious thrill of seeing smart-mouthed teenagers receive extremely harsh punish- ment). A photograph of one of these boot camps reveals a figure in the background who might be Draconis! What’s really going on with the “Sally Jen” show and its approach to “tough love”?
It’s no longer enough for Draconis to command living troops; now he plans to find a way to develop his powers so he can summon soldiers from the past to fight on his behalf. Can you stop him before (as Sap- phire says) “he commits a crime against nature as well as humanity?” Alexander Dracoulides surrenders himself to the authority, claiming he’s never been respon- sible for his actions: someone crawled inside his head when he was in a coma in Cyprus and took control of his mind. Was Draconis responsible for his actions, or has he been a victim for his entire career... and if so, who took control of him?
a recruitment team to pay him a visit. Upon discov- ering his delusions of conquest and grandeur, the VIPER agents played upon them, convincing him that joining VIPER was just the first step on his road to rulership of Earth.
VIPER has since had cause to question the wisdom of the recruiters’ tactic. While Draconis did join the organization and has served as part of Dragon Branch ever since, he’s a poor follower — he persists in his megalomania. After consider- able badgering, he persuaded the Council Of Thirty to give him command of a Nest in the northwest United States. Except on the battlefield, where he showed a high degree of tactical skill, he was a miserable leader; it didn’t take long before his Nest was crushed in rather spectacular fashion by the unlikely combination of PRIMUS and PSI (the latter saw him as a rival psionic who could attract telepaths to VIPER).
That defeat took a little of the wind out of Draconis’s sails, but not much. He continues to agitate for leadership positions, and clearly seems to think VIPER should serve him, not the other way around. Conflict between Draconis and the Council is not yet frequent, but is on the rise, and it’s causing concern in some quarters of VIPER that the organization has another rogue supervil- lain on its hands. Serpent-General Cliffe already has several contingency plans in place to deal with Draconis should the need arise.
Personality/Motivation: Draconis is a megalo- maniac. He still accepts orders from his VIPER superiors, especially in non-combat situations, but once he gets to the battlefield he’s likely to do what he wants — and if possible he wants to lead. Most Nest Leaders have learned to hand him a squad of agents, indicate an objective, and then let him alone. This usually satisfies him... but if he decides someone has pawned a stupid or meaningless mission off on him, watch out!
Draconis has such a lofty opinion of “the glory of battle” that combat often transfixes him. On his first Phase in any combat, he must make an EGO Roll. If he succeeds, he can take actions
as he wishes. If he fails, he takes no action (though he defends himself at full DCV), but just watches the battle in delight; he may attempt the EGO Roll again each Phase until he snaps out of it or the battle ends. (An enemy telepath could also use this quirk against him to force him to make additional rolls later in a battle.)
Quote: “You think I and my men are jokes? Come, upbraid me with your savage wit... wait a minute, you can’t laugh while I’m squeezing the air out of your lungs, can you?”
Powers/Tactics: Draconis is a mutate with powers of force manipulation. He can shape planes of force for various purposes (protecting himself or others, blasting or strangling people, and so forth). He can also exert some control over other force fields. VIPER scientists suspect he may actually have much greater powers, involving telepathy and other psionic abilities, but his personal obsessions hold him back.
Draconis’s tactics depend on whether he’s alone or leading a team of agents. While he’s in command, he’s content to use his powers to bolster agents; for example, he’ll put up his “Dragon Wall” to protect agents as they fire, or use his telekinesis to grab a target so agents can more easily direct their fire against it. When fighting by himself, he’ll combat his foes directly with force blasts, force prisons, abrasion fields, and more. He also carries a dart-gun with poisoned darts; he likes to use this to surprise and weaken his foes.
Campaign Use: Draconis serves two purposes in the game. One, you can use him to bolster groups of agents, giving them tactical options they’d otherwise lack. Second, he’s a time bomb waiting to go off; even- tually, he’ll turn on VIPER, and the PCs may be able to take advantage of the situation to attack the snakes.
The “split from VIPER” plot has been done to death in many campaigns, so if you use Draconis in this way, try to really show the players the tension between VIPER and Draconis, and perhaps add an unexpected twist or two. Alternatively, you can use him as a “VIPER makes an example of him” character: he breaks from VIPER, only to discover an experi- mental device was secretly implanted in him that either neutralizes his powers, or kills him.
To make Draconis weaker, reduce his Multip- ower reserve so he can’t use so many powers at once, and/or reduce the Active Points in his individual powers. To make him tougher, increase the Multip- ower reserve — or better yet, shift some of the defense, movement, and utility powers to an Elemental Con- trol, and give him more attacks in the Multipower. You could also boost a few of his existing powers (for example, increase his Telekinesis to 60 STR).
Draconis does not Hunt heroes on his own. He only does so when VIPER orders him to, how it orders him to. He chafes at this, though, particularly if he feels a hero has insulted or belittled him. VIPER’s refusal to let him pursue a vendetta against a hero he’s come to hate may be what finally pushes him over the edge.
Appearance: Draconis is a bearded Caucasian male with a Mediterranean skin tone in his early 30s. He wears a green VIPER-style costume with black trim, plus a long flowing cape attached to a pair of shoulder pads with a facing snake motif. He carries his tranquilizer pistol in a holster on his right hip on most occasions. When he speaks in English, his Greek accent is quite noticeable.