Normal Man

Melee RV 10

Coordination RV 20

Brawn RV 6

Fortitude RV 20

Intellect RV 10

Awareness RV 20

Willpower RV 10

Lifestyle RV 10

Repute RV 0

Health: Fortune:

56 40

Origin:

Harold tried to live a life free of danger or strife - but such a life found him. This is because he tripped into a legacy of sorts, found himself suddenly possessed of startling powers over a curious form of energy known as antimagic, and became compelled to fight wizards!

Known Powers:

Wizard's Bane Legacy: this bundle of super-powers, which persists through time even if its wielders do not, is responsive to the state of magic in the world. After a certain threshold of spell use is attained on earth, it will seek a fresh host to fight wielders of magic!

Generally, this Legacy will hunt out those who actively combat entities who wield (or are made possible by) sorcerous energies, though in a pinch it will settle on individuals who simply want things to remain static - and will instill within them an overwhelming compulsion to battle wizards!

This, in fact, is what happened when the Wizard's Bane Legacy imprinted itself upon poor Harold Norman. He wants to live a perfectly quiet life, but his powers now require him to seek out mages and destroy them. To this end, it has granted him these ascendant abilities:

* Antimagic Generation: Harold can manifest large amounts of stabilizing, antimagic energy at will. Strictly speaking, this power can be used against others as can any other energy attack, inflicting rank value 50 damage with each blast - ironically, of the Sorcerous type.

Against those who possess no magic to speak of, antimagic has no additional effect (aside from possibly killing those it strikes in normal combat). Versus magical defenses however, antimagic adopts an Armor Piercing component, and may negate its target's ability to use magic.

Beings who wield magic, either naturally or in the form of spells, must pass a Willpower ACT roll against the amount of antimagic damage they suffer - or be unable to use it for 1d10 turns. An antimagic attack affects magical spells and effects in the environment in a like fashion.

* Annulment: Harold is surrounded by an invisible nimbus of antimagic at all times. This particular effect doesn't inflict damage per se, but negates any magical effect Harold touches (or is used against him) with a whopping rank value 100 ability.

* Magic Sense: by simply feeling the drain on his power caused by the presence of magic (mutual annihilation of magic and antimagic), Harold can sense magic with rank value 100 ability. Of course, canny mages may also detect this reaction, and react accordingly!

* Regeneration: acting to preserve Harold should he face a particularly crafty wizard (or their minions), this power helps him live to fight another day. Functioning at rank value 10, it allows Harold to recover 1 Health point every combat turn, assuming he takes no damage in said turn.

Limitations / Enhancements:

(none)

Equipment:

(none)

Quirks:

Bigotry / Wizards 3: a side effect of the legacy he's wandered into, Harold has developed an overwhelming hatred of spellcasters. Should he encounter one, Harold must pass a Willpower ACT roll at -6 RS to resist attacking them immediately - if he wishes to restrain himself.

Skills:

Law: Harold is a corporate lawyer by trade, and as such, he is well-versed in the ins and outs of such matters. When representing a business in legal proceedings (whether it be to enact a merger or to refute a charge of monopoly), Harold makes applicable ACT rolls at a +1 RS.

Contacts:

Though he's a member of the Tenacious Ten, Harold can't really consider them reliable contacts. Several of them are tainted with magic after all, and having made this point on several occasions, Harold has found his teammates were willing to come to blows to shut him up in that regard.

Costume:

Harold normally wears a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a pair of leather boots, and oddly, a white tabard. The legend has a wizard cone on it, being a triangle with stars on it, within a red circle with a bar through it. Of course, he doesn't wear the tabard when he's at work - only while he's 'hunting'.

Personality:

Harold is about as mild-mannered as they come, at least most of the time. He works at a mellow, mundane job, he has a wife with 2.5 kids in a middle-class suburban neighborhood, and he tries to keep out of trouble. Of course, that all changes whenever he detects any magic in the area.

Almost like a switch is thrown in his head, his personality does a complete reversal, and he becomes exuberant. This is because, thanks to the strange powers that have settled within him, Harold relishes the opportunity to put down yet another magical opponent.

And this bothers him to no end...!

Real Name: Harold Norman
Occupation: Corporate lawyer, mystic troublemaker
Legal Status: citizen of the United States with no known criminal record
Marital Status: married
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: the Tenacious Ten

Height: 5' 9"
Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
Weight: 180 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none. That's the point!

Story:

Harold Norman always meant to live a quiet life, free of the intrigue and general madness that seemed to surround the more excitable people in school. As such, he decided to become a lawyer, even though there's seemingly one for every three people in America.

He figured he'd just specialize in something simple, like tax or business law, and wound up becoming one of several lawyers in the employ of a small, nondescript company in the American Midwest. He even got married eventually, and had a few kids.

But not too many. Harold was well on his way towards doing absolutely nothing of consequence in the world, and he was perfectly happy with that. Of course, this wound up being the final catalyst that made him a lightning rod for a strange legacy that pops up in people like him.

This legacy, the Wizard's Bane, becomes active whenever there's a certain number of magic wielders present in the world. The exact number of such people it takes to activate the legacy is currently unknown, but this is irrelevant really, as there'll always be more.

The instant it chose him, Harold became aware of a mage living just three doors down from his perfect, white picket fence home, and he savaged the druid within seconds of realizing she was there. After she fled for her life, Harold came to his senses, and realized something was wrong.

Researching his family history, Harold found something similar in his great grandfather's journals: an ex-girlfriend of his who was seemingly the most boring woman he'd ever met - at least until he found out that she had it in for magicians of any stripe, not just those working in Las Vegas!

Learning she'd been struck with the 'wizard bug' out of the blue just as he was, Harold dug deeper - each time he encountered and trounced another mage who was just minding his own business at home. In their books and journals, what he'd 'caught' was described in great detail.

He found that this 'curse' had struck many others through the years, and learned why it shows up. Armed with this knowledge, he decided to eliminate as many sorcerous types as he could get his hands on, to free himself from the burden of these insane powers.

And allow him to return to his regular life in Springfield. So, taking an extended leave of absence from work under the guise of a 'mid-life crisis', Harold left home to find these skulking wizard types. That, of course, was when he was approached by the mighty technomage, Elys.

Herself an exceptionally large dragoness, Elys proved to be an irresistible target to Harold, who threw down on the dragon with everything he had. As powerful as his antimagic is though, Elys was much tougher, and she defeated him with sheer physical might after he neutralized her magics.

Morose at this defeat, Harold prepared to be eaten when Elys instead made him an offer. In exchange for serving her, she would point him towards many powerful and dangerous wizards - those who were the most likely cause of him being empowered by this strange legacy of his.

Though wary of this offer, Harold nonetheless accepted - it beat dying. Dealing with Elys' other minions was difficult for Harold however, for many of them possessed magical abilities - abilities which he complained about constantly. Which caused them to react violently to him, in turn.

Regardless, Harold stuck with the team long enough to do her bidding, which involved taking on a group of heroes intent on her demise. Harold did his level best to take these heroes on, but in the end he was trounced properly... along with the rest of Elys' Tenacious Ten.

Elys attempted to teleport her minions to safety at this point, to get some use out of them in the future, but as things turned out she was defeated shortly thereafter. And her spell didn't work on Harold anyway, leaving him alone and defeated beneath Antarctica's surface.

Whether he made it out of that frozen hole to fight another day remains to be seen, though given his particular power set, it's a safe bet that the world hasn't seen or heard the very last of... Normal Man!

Legal Hoopajoob:

I offer my Edition 13 work under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

What this means is that if you wish, you may use this Edition 13 material in any way you see fit, whether copying, distributing, or displaying all or part of this text, as long as you credit my work, in either your own derivative texts or products.

If you would like more information about me for attribution, you can contact me via e mail (DashApostrophe@gmail.com).

Extra Goodies:

Return to the Tenacious Ten main page!

Interested in using Technoholic content in your own project? Please read this beforehand!