Elder Worm Sorcerers are well-versed in Elder Worm magics (they’re often priests as well); after the Slug they’re the leaders of Elder Worm society.
Their standard spells include a Darkblast, a Dark Explosion, and a “Psionic Apocalypse” spell that causes intense mental pain to everyone around them (other Elder Worms are immune to this).
Sorcerers’ knowledge and understanding of Elder Worm wizardry allows them to use their Power Skill to craft other spells “on the fly.” They can create spells with up to 30 Active Points, but suffer a -1 penalty to the Skill Roll per 10 Active Points. Alternately, you can simply give them more spells (more slots in their Multipowers).
Use the spells CU 66-68 or The HERO System Grimoire, but change the special effects to make them creepier, more sinister, more horrifying. An Elder Worm spell shouldn’t look or “feel” like an equivalent Human spell.
Cost Power 2 +2 STR 2 +2 CON 10 +10 INT 5 +5 EGO 5 +5 PRE 5 +1 OCV 5 +1 DCV 10 +1 SPD 4 +4 REC 4 +20 END 3 +6 STUN
80 Dark Magics: Multipower, 80-point reserve 6f 1) Darkblast: Blast 12d6
7f 2) Dark Explosion: Blast 10d6, Area Of Effect (22m Radius Explosion; +½)
1f 3) Horror Of The Worm: +30 PRE; Costs Endur-ance (-½), Only For Fear-/Intimidation-Based Presence Attacks (-1)
4f 4) Enhanced Worm-Gem: Mental Blast 6d6;
OIF (-½)
4f 5) Psionic Apocalypse: Mental Blast 4d6, Area Of Effect (16m Radius; +¾), Personal Immu-nity (+¼); OIF (-½), No Range (-½)
+4 Advanced Humidity Suit: Increase to Resistant Protection (8 PD/8 ED)
2 Cryptography 13-; Translation Only (-½) 3 Interrogation
13-3 KS: Arcane And Occult Lore 13-3 KS: Elder Worm History And Lore 13-5 Power: Elder Worm Magics 14-Total cost: +177 points
198 n Slun Hero System 6th Edition
Background/History: Yaromir Blokhin was born and raised in St. Petersburg (though it was still called Leningrad at the time). A quiet, contempla-tive, intelligent child, as he grew up he felt a reli-gious vocation and attended an Orthodox Chris-tian seminary with the intent of becoming a priest.
But when he was 20 he developed strange psychic powers — the ability to read and control men’s minds, or to inflict agony with but a thought. His personality warped by the sudden emergence of these powers and the realization of what he could do with them, he rejected his upbringing and his faith to turn to evil. Between his psionic powers, a natural proclivity for crime, and sheer cruelty, since the mid-Nineties he’s worked his way to the top of the Russian underworld. Calling himself Slun (“The Bishop”), he affects some of the trap-pings of an Orthodox priest to give himself an added air of danger and depravity.
In recent years the scope of Slun’s activities has expanded. Not content just to be by far the most powerful Russian mobster, he’s branched out into Europe and parts of central Asia. At the rate he’s going his organization may dominate crime in Eurasia (outside of China and Japan) within a decade.
Personality/Motivation: Slun presents himself as the Devil incarnate, wholeheartedly throwing himself into any sin that catches his attention.
It’s mostly an act — his reputation as the “Evilest Man In Russia,” a land that’s seen more than its share of evil, helps him intimidate his underlings as well as the authorities and the general public.
Judicious use of his powers to gather “impossible”
information only underscores the rumors of his infernal nature. Slun loves both the infamy and the material gains his position affords, particularly creature comforts; he dresses in tailored suits under his mock robes, drinks the finest brandy, smokes the most expensive cigars he can find, and never has fewer than two beautiful women with him to satisfy his every whim. But his greatest love is gourmet food. His gluttony is nearly bound-less, and he often holds “business meetings”
over dinners that last for hours. Anyone who can compete with him as a trencherman earns a measure of his respect.
Despite his mockery of the Church and God, deep down a part of him remains a believer.
Slun genuinely fears he’ll go to Hell for his vast collection of sins. He figures his only chance is to become so great and famous a sinner that he can somehow receive special status in the Infernal Realm, perhaps sitting at the side of the Devil he’s so often claimed to know personally.
Quote: “I can assure you, good sir, that you’ve never met anyone quite as bad as me.”
Powers/Tactics: Slun is a powerful, if not overly versatile, telepath whose primary abilities revolve around mind-reading or forcing his will on others.
He can generate waves of telepathic pressure that cause excruciating pain in an opponent, or overwhelm a foe’s thinking processes with mental static that makes him even more susceptible to commands and diminishes his capacity to think.
His mind-reading abilities also allow him to trans-late unknown languages by linking himself to the mind of another speaker of the same language to access the translation abilities of the third person.
Slun has used his telepathy to gain incrimi-nating information on most of Russia’s powerful citizens: mayors, generals, high federal officials, business leaders, journalists. His people run most of the organized criminal activity in Russia, from loansharking and protection rackets to illegal gambling, smuggling, and contract murder, and he’s well known for using brutal violence when crossed. He’s eliminated several rival gangs through swift attrition, systematically targeting their businesses for fires and similar “accidents”
while picking off individual members as opportu-nity and clever planning allowed. Eventually the remaining members of a rival gang either flee or join Slun.
So far Slun has kept the fact that he has mental powers mostly secret. His closest underlings know he’s psionic, and some of his enemies at least suspect it, but there’s never been confirmation.
The longer he can keep his adversaries doubting his abilities, the better he likes it.
Resources: Slun is immensely rich and wields extensive political and social influence throughout Russia (and to a lesser extent, Europe). He doesn’t have gadget-filled secret bases and legions of robotic minions like most master villains, but PCs who don’t take him seriously because of that are likely to regret it.
Champions Villains Volume One: Master Villains n Slun 199
Val Char Cost Roll Notes
13 STR 3 12- Lift 150 kg; 2½d6 [1]
10 DEX 0 11-15 CON 5
12-18 INT 8 PER Roll 13-26 EGO 16
14-20 PRE 10 13- PRE Attack: 4d6
3 OCV 0
3 DCV 0
10 OMCV 21 9 DMCV 18
4 SPD 20 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 6 PD 4 Total: 12 PD (6 rPD) 5 ED 3 Total: 11 ED (6 rED)
6 REC 2
45 END 5 20 BODY 10
36 STUN 8 Total Characteristics Cost: 133 Movement: Running: 12m
Cost Powers END
20 Quick Thinking: +3 SPD 0
Only To Use Mental Powers (-½) 75 Mentalism: Multipower, 75-point reserve
7f 1) Mind Reading: Telepathy 14d6 7 7f 2) Mental Assault: Mental Blast 7d6 7 7f 3) Weak Minded Fools: Drain EGO and INT 4d6 7
ACV (uses OMCV against DMCV; +¼), Expanded Effect (INT and EGO simultaneously; +½)
7f 4) Mental Domination: Mind Control 12d6 3 Reduced Endurance (½ END; +¼)
Martial Arts: Streetfghting
Maneuver OCV DCV Notes
4 Eye Gouge -1 -1 Sight Group Flash
4d6
4 Kidney Punch -2 +0 HKA ½d6
(1d6+1 with STR)
4 Low Blow -1 +1 NND 2d6
5 Roundhouse/Curb Stomp -2 +1 Strike 6½d6 20 Powerful Mental Shields: Mental Defense (20 points) 0 29 Sense Other Minds: Detect Minds 15- (Mental Group),
Discriminatory, Increased Arc Of Perception (360
Degrees), Sense, Targeting 0
5 Armored Robes: Resistant Protection (3 PD/3 ED) 0 OIF (-½), Activation Roll 13- (-¼)
10 Lucky: Luck 2d6 0
Perks
100 Contacts: Well-Connected and 97 points’ worth of Contacts throughout St. Petersburg, Russia, and Europe
4 Fringe Benefit: Membership (head of a major gang) 15 Money: Filthy Rich
Talents
6 Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED)
16 Psychic Translation: Universal Translator
17-Only Works In The Presence Of A Fluent Speaker (-½) Skills
3 Acting 13-3 Bribery 13-3 Bureaucratics
13-8 Gambling (Card Games, Dice Games, Sports Betting, Roulette)
13-3 High Society 13-3 Interrogation 13-5 CK: St. Petersburg 15-3 KS: European Underworld 13-5 KS: Russian Underworld 15-3 KS: Russian Orthodox Christianity
13-1 Language: English (basic conversation; Russian is Native) 3 Oratory
13-3 PS: Mobster 13-3 Streetwise 13-2 WF: Small Arms
Total Powers & Skills Cost: 396 Total Cost: 529
400 Matching Complications (75)
20 DNPC: elderly mother 8- (Incompetent; Unaware of char-acter’s Social Complication: Secret Identity) 10 Distinctive Features: Mutant (Not Concealable; Always
Noticed; Detectable Only By Unusual Senses) 20 Hunted: FSB (Federal Security Service) (Frequently, Mo
Pow, NCI, Capture)
20 Hunted: Russian Government (Infrequently, Mo Pow, NCI, Capture)
15 Psychological Complication: Cruel (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Complication: Enjoys Western Luxuries,
Particularly Food And Cigars (Common, Strong) 15 Social Complication: Secret Identity (Yaromir Blokhin)
(Frequently, Major) Total Complications Points: 75 Experience Points: 129
200 n Slun Hero System 6th Edition Campaign Use: Slun could get involved in nearly
any adventure taking place in Russia — if there’s unusual activity going on or an opportunity for profit in “his” country, he’ll look to take advantage of it. Heroes based in the United States may find themselves dealing with new groups of Russian mobsters in their city, and following that thread eventually leads them to Slun.
If it’s unlikely your heroes will ever travel to Russia, you can easily make Slun a major crimelord in the United States instead: after setback he fled to America, took over all the Russian organized crime gangs here (and some non-Russian groups), and is now more powerful than he ever was back in the Motherland. Tone down his powers and he’d work well in Hudson City; change him to more of a mystic villain and he’d fit right into Vibora Bay.
To make Slun more powerful, give him some more Multipower slots (Mental Illusions or a Mental Transform, for example) and/or related abilities like Mind Scan. To weaken him, reduce his Multipower reserve and slots to about 40 Active Points... or eliminate his mental powers altogether, making him just an ordinary gangster in funny clothes.
Associates, Allies, And Adversaries: Slun doesn’t really “mingle” with the Superhuman World and has no real allies in it (or even among the ordi-nary underworld) — just enemies and potential enemies. His “fingers in every pie” approach to crime in Russia has made him a lot of rivals and foes, including the Russian supercriminals Molnya and Beek, and VIPER.
As their respective criminal empires continue to expand, Slun and Joseph Otanga could easily come into conflict, with the battleground probably in southern Europe and the Mediterranean. Slun would prefer to avoid such a destructive “war,” but he’s preparing to fight it just in case.
Appearance: Slun stands 5’10” tall and is corpu-lent, but carries it fairly well. He wears a long, high-collared black robe and short black cape that wraps all the way around his shoulders;
both garments are designed to mimic those of Orthodox priests, and have glistening silver trim.
He habitually wears a long silver necklace with an ornate cross hanging from it.