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Please direct compliments on the art to the artist and commission them.

This was a character I played in a one-shot and quite liked.

My GM's response to her was this:

"Interesting, I like her. She sounds like the sort of character who was created in the 70s as an attempt to ape Dr Strange or Iron Fist, who had her own series that folded but she stayed a background character of the 'verse, never really developed. Then someone like Alan Moore or Grant Morrison wrote a ground-breaking series about her in the 90s, when Sandman and Hellblazer were really popular - probably full of mysticism meeting chemistry and trippy serpent symbolism by some of the artists who drew Sandman. She became a cult favourite, but one who's fandom had never really warmed to any other writer since that revival, or had bad writers whose work was mostly retconned, so these days she mostly pops up as a guest star and occasional miniseries or crossover event.

Of course, I could be talking nonsense. Though I think I may really like the idea of interpreting M&M as actual comic books."

Stats and story element follow.

-------------------

Queen Snake – Ning Abe (formerly Ning Mayers while married)

Age: 47 (appears to be 25 still)

Reptile Totem – Mutation

As a young resident Ning Abe was part of the staff in a research hospital involved with a project seeking to improve upon chemotherapy methods. Ning was quietly running her own experiments with combining her limited magical knowledge with the treatments. One day, there was a flood of emergency room patients due to a chase between a local Punisher-style vigilante and some criminals. The research staff was called to help and in the chaos, some of Ning’s formula ended up getting mixed up with other syringes. Ning was one of several people injected by “accident” (her accident was being taken hostage by a desperate thug). The drug took varying times to affect those injected but Ning reacted the quickest by far.

Ning has been an on-again-off-again hero for twenty years but she’s never sustained a consistent career as a hero so she is generally considered a perpetual amateur by the public. Long term heroes and government agents recognize she’s professional in approach but prefers not to go looking for trouble. She acquired her headquarters sometime after her divorce (eight years ago) as an “inheritance” from what the staff of the mansion claim is a great-aunt and uncle. The estate exists in dimensionally unfolded space making it larger inside than it is outside though most visitors don’t notice. The estate is paid for by a trust, Ning suspects it just exists for her benefit and doesn’t appear in actual government registers, her own wealth comes from her medical patents.

Ning refers to herself as “Queen Snake” due to her immunity to poisons similar to King Snakes. The fact that many of her enemies are also snake-based plays into that since snakes with the word “King” in their names are often known to eat other snakes.

Str 4(8) Sta 4 Agl 2 Dex 4

Fgt 6 Int 3 Awe 2 Pre 0

Dodge: 8 Parry: 10 Fort: 4 Tough: 10 Will: 8

Advantages: Attractive, Wealth 1, Equipment: 5, Ritualist, Inventor, Evasion, Great Endurance, Favored Environment (Tight Spaces), Uncanny Dodge

Skills: Expertise: Science 8 (+11), Investigation 4 (+7), Technology: 8 (+11), Expertise: Magic 4 (+7), Insight 4(+6), Perception 4(+6), Treatment 4(+7), Stealth 4(+6), Acrobatics 6(+8), Deception 6(+6)

Feature: Quick Change between current outfit and Runed Fighting Robes

Reptilian Movement: Slithering

Reptilian Senses: Acute and Accurate Smell, Infravision

Scaly Hide: Protection 6

Fast and Strong: Enhanced Strength 4, Enhanced Close Attack 4

Regrowth: Regeneration 1, Persistent

Sustained Metabolism: Immunity: Age, Poison

Speedy: Leaping 2 (30 ft), Wall-Crawling 2, Speed 3

Claws: Strength based damage 2

Runed Fighting Robes: Provides Impervious 4, Subtle (not obviously magical/protective)

Headquarters: House with Hidden Spaces – Size: Medium, Toughness: 10, Features: Dual-Size (Huge), Secret 2, Communications, Computer, Workshop, Defense System, Holding Cells, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Power System, Security System, Gym, Personnel

Attack: Claws - +10 Attack (Fighting 6 + Close Attack 4), +10 Damage (Strength 8 + 2 Damage)

Complications

Motivation: Responsibility – She feels a responsibility to use her abilities to protect people. Mostly she tries to focus on using her scientific abilities to find solutions to societal problems, but she recognizes the duty her superhuman abilities come with. The staff in her headquarters are part of some sort of guardian snake cult that stresses her position as a force of good fairly incessantly. She is familiar with magic to a small degree, but is still hesitant to believe in things like destiny. She does occasionally have dreams involving a celestial, feathered serpent of some sort. The fact that she is directly responsible for the creation of several villains and at least one short-lived hero wannabe, also fills her nightmares.

Identity – She uses a drug to suppress her mutation under normal circumstances. Adrenaline or high levels of similar hormones can burn through the drug. The limit is less about getting into the fight than it is about keeping calm long enough to get out of sight before changing. She does have a mystical tattoo that allows her to call her fighting robes in an instant. Doing so will flush her drug instantly. She is not entirely certain whether the personnel of her base are entirely human. The few samples she’s gotten a hold of are inclusive both scientifically and with the little bit of magic she knows.

Relationship – Her ex-husband (Det Donald Mayers 45) and two children (daughter 20 named for her husband’s mother Linda, son 16 named Kenshiro for her own father) are still active in her life. They share a more or less friendly and healthy relationship but it was her secrets that ended the relationship. There sometimes appears to be a chance of them getting back together but that would hinge on her identity being revealed and how it is revealed. Her children were born after her mutation, depending on how thoroughly the mutation had infiltrated her when they were born, one or both may inherit her powers (or similar ones, the magical element of the formula means they might have other sort of powers). Her husband is a local police detective. Honestly he should have been able to figure out her secret, but it’s a matter of being too close to the issue.

Secret – The general public is not aware of who Queen Snake is and she’d rather it stayed that way. Her identity is known to certain governmental agencies that deal with superhumans. Most of her superhuman action results from her being on the spot, but she is often pressured or guilt-tripped into more proactive missions by these agencies. One of the contact agents, Marion DeWitt, tends to be rather authoritative and prone to dry wit (think Phil Coulson) but is usually upfront and honest. Most of the time he calls her is to speak to younger totems they’ve found but sometimes it’s a mission. There is another working for a different branch, Georgiana LaGrand, who tends to be disrespectful and manipulative while putting on a friendly act and is more likely to blackmail her or manipulate her from the shadows if she doesn’t want her to realize she’s involved.

Enemies: To date, Queen Snake has been sporadically active (mostly because of her preference to focus on scientific research) but she still has a large rogue’s gallery. Many of these include other snake totems of a more villainous bent. There are a number of snake-related individuals that resulted from the use of her formula in the instance that gave created her own powers. It seems like about half of these ended up turning villain. There is also the mysterious “Yuan-Ti” who has been known to hunt down or recruit those affected by Ning’s formula as he’s trying to recreate the formula. Somehow, Yuan-Ti has discovered that Queen Snake created the formula and has since tried to figure out who she is and get the formula out of her.

Prejudice: Due to her, to date, sporadic appearances, and her blatantly reptilian features, local press tends to be very negative when she does make an appearance. Certain fundamentalist Christian groups believe her to be demonic (though snake-handler denominations have other sorts of fascinations.)

Archetype Modifications:

Removals: Assessment, Trance, Prehensile Tail, Paralyzing Spit, Impervious modifier

Reductions: Expertise: Magic down to 4

Total Points Removed: 26

Additions: Attractive, Wealth 1, Inventor, Equipment: 5, Int 3, Stealth 4, Acrobatics: 6, Close Combat: Unarmed 6, Immunity: Age and Poison, Features: Quick Change

Total Points Added: 26

Description

Art by

They've posted on their gallery here:

Please direct compliments on the art to the artist and commission them.

This was a character I played in a one-shot and quite liked.

My GM's response to her was this:

"Interesting, I like her. She sounds like the sort of character who was created in the 70s as an attempt to ape Dr Strange or Iron Fist, who had her own series that folded but she stayed a background character of the 'verse, never really developed. Then someone like Alan Moore or Grant Morrison wrote a ground-breaking series about her in the 90s, when Sandman and Hellblazer were really popular - probably full of mysticism meeting chemistry and trippy serpent symbolism by some of the artists who drew Sandman. She became a cult favourite, but one who's fandom had never really warmed to any other writer since that revival, or had bad writers whose work was mostly retconned, so these days she mostly pops up as a guest star and occasional miniseries or crossover event.

Of course, I could be talking nonsense. Though I think I may really like the idea of interpreting M&M as actual comic books."

Stats and story element follow.

-------------------

Queen Snake – Ning Abe (formerly Ning Mayers while married)

Age: 47 (appears to be 25 still)

Reptile Totem – Mutation

As a young resident Ning Abe was part of the staff in a research hospital involved with a project seeking to improve upon chemotherapy methods. Ning was quietly running her own experiments with combining her limited magical knowledge with the treatments. One day, there was a flood of emergency room patients due to a chase between a local Punisher-style vigilante and some criminals. The research staff was called to help and in the chaos, some of Ning’s formula ended up getting mixed up with other syringes. Ning was one of several people injected by “accident” (her accident was being taken hostage by a desperate thug). The drug took varying times to affect those injected but Ning reacted the quickest by far.

Ning has been an on-again-off-again hero for twenty years but she’s never sustained a consistent career as a hero so she is generally considered a perpetual amateur by the public. Long term heroes and government agents recognize she’s professional in approach but prefers not to go looking for trouble. She acquired her headquarters sometime after her divorce (eight years ago) as an “inheritance” from what the staff of the mansion claim is a great-aunt and uncle. The estate exists in dimensionally unfolded space making it larger inside than it is outside though most visitors don’t notice. The estate is paid for by a trust, Ning suspects it just exists for her benefit and doesn’t appear in actual government registers, her own wealth comes from her medical patents.

Ning refers to herself as “Queen Snake” due to her immunity to poisons similar to King Snakes. The fact that many of her enemies are also snake-based plays into that since snakes with the word “King” in their names are often known to eat other snakes.

Str 4(8) Sta 4 Agl 2 Dex 4

Fgt 6 Int 3 Awe 2 Pre 0

Dodge: 8 Parry: 10 Fort: 4 Tough: 10 Will: 8

Advantages: Attractive, Wealth 1, Equipment: 5, Ritualist, Inventor, Evasion, Great Endurance, Favored Environment (Tight Spaces), Uncanny Dodge

Skills: Expertise: Science 8 (+11), Investigation 4 (+7), Technology: 8 (+11), Expertise: Magic 4 (+7), Insight 4(+6), Perception 4(+6), Treatment 4(+7), Stealth 4(+6), Acrobatics 6(+8), Deception 6(+6)

Feature: Quick Change between current outfit and Runed Fighting Robes

Reptilian Movement: Slithering

Reptilian Senses: Acute and Accurate Smell, Infravision

Scaly Hide: Protection 6

Fast and Strong: Enhanced Strength 4, Enhanced Close Attack 4

Regrowth: Regeneration 1, Persistent

Sustained Metabolism: Immunity: Age, Poison

Speedy: Leaping 2 (30 ft), Wall-Crawling 2, Speed 3

Claws: Strength based damage 2

Runed Fighting Robes: Provides Impervious 4, Subtle (not obviously magical/protective)

Headquarters: House with Hidden Spaces – Size: Medium, Toughness: 10, Features: Dual-Size (Huge), Secret 2, Communications, Computer, Workshop, Defense System, Holding Cells, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Power System, Security System, Gym, Personnel

Attack: Claws - +10 Attack (Fighting 6 + Close Attack 4), +10 Damage (Strength 8 + 2 Damage)

Complications

Motivation: Responsibility – She feels a responsibility to use her abilities to protect people. Mostly she tries to focus on using her scientific abilities to find solutions to societal problems, but she recognizes the duty her superhuman abilities come with. The staff in her headquarters are part of some sort of guardian snake cult that stresses her position as a force of good fairly incessantly. She is familiar with magic to a small degree, but is still hesitant to believe in things like destiny. She does occasionally have dreams involving a celestial, feathered serpent of some sort. The fact that she is directly responsible for the creation of several villains and at least one short-lived hero wannabe, also fills her nightmares.

Identity – She uses a drug to suppress her mutation under normal circumstances. Adrenaline or high levels of similar hormones can burn through the drug. The limit is less about getting into the fight than it is about keeping calm long enough to get out of sight before changing. She does have a mystical tattoo that allows her to call her fighting robes in an instant. Doing so will flush her drug instantly. She is not entirely certain whether the personnel of her base are entirely human. The few samples she’s gotten a hold of are inclusive both scientifically and with the little bit of magic she knows.

Relationship – Her ex-husband (Det Donald Mayers 45) and two children (daughter 20 named for her husband’s mother Linda, son 16 named Kenshiro for her own father) are still active in her life. They share a more or less friendly and healthy relationship but it was her secrets that ended the relationship. There sometimes appears to be a chance of them getting back together but that would hinge on her identity being revealed and how it is revealed. Her children were born after her mutation, depending on how thoroughly the mutation had infiltrated her when they were born, one or both may inherit her powers (or similar ones, the magical element of the formula means they might have other sort of powers). Her husband is a local police detective. Honestly he should have been able to figure out her secret, but it’s a matter of being too close to the issue.

Secret – The general public is not aware of who Queen Snake is and she’d rather it stayed that way. Her identity is known to certain governmental agencies that deal with superhumans. Most of her superhuman action results from her being on the spot, but she is often pressured or guilt-tripped into more proactive missions by these agencies. One of the contact agents, Marion DeWitt, tends to be rather authoritative and prone to dry wit (think Phil Coulson) but is usually upfront and honest. Most of the time he calls her is to speak to younger totems they’ve found but sometimes it’s a mission. There is another working for a different branch, Georgiana LaGrand, who tends to be disrespectful and manipulative while putting on a friendly act and is more likely to blackmail her or manipulate her from the shadows if she doesn’t want her to realize she’s involved.

Enemies: To date, Queen Snake has been sporadically active (mostly because of her preference to focus on scientific research) but she still has a large rogue’s gallery. Many of these include other snake totems of a more villainous bent. There are a number of snake-related individuals that resulted from the use of her formula in the instance that gave created her own powers. It seems like about half of these ended up turning villain. There is also the mysterious “Yuan-Ti” who has been known to hunt down or recruit those affected by Ning’s formula as he’s trying to recreate the formula. Somehow, Yuan-Ti has discovered that Queen Snake created the formula and has since tried to figure out who she is and get the formula out of her.

Prejudice: Due to her, to date, sporadic appearances, and her blatantly reptilian features, local press tends to be very negative when she does make an appearance. Certain fundamentalist Christian groups believe her to be demonic (though snake-handler denominations have other sorts of fascinations.)

Archetype Modifications:

Removals: Assessment, Trance, Prehensile Tail, Paralyzing Spit, Impervious modifier

Reductions: Expertise: Magic down to 4

Total Points Removed: 26

Additions: Attractive, Wealth 1, Inventor, Equipment: 5, Int 3, Stealth 4, Acrobatics: 6, Close Combat: Unarmed 6, Immunity: Age and Poison, Features: Quick Change

Total Points Added: 26