Notable information

In here will post various snippets of information that may or may not be useful as the game goes on, even if it's only for reference...

• General Robert Erwin Campbell Forbes, joint head of D.I.C.E. (Department of Intelligence and Counter Espionage, a division of the SIS). in charge of development, recruitment and counter espionage. Relies on General Wynn, his former mentor, whom he trusts completely.
  
• Brigadier Edward Thomas Dawson, joint head of D.I.C.E., in charge of strange sciences section (SSS)
  
• Emma Louise Steed, Major, agent of DICE (Gravity Girl E12 S10 D12 V22 Htc85 Htk79 Mass Manipulation, Vigour, Precision)
  
  
  
• Peelers, lower ranking agents of DICE, trained in unarmed combat and weapons, wear suits, bowler hats and carry umbrellas. Look identical save for facial details. Clean shaven, smart, punctual, well educated and resourceful. Picked from the ranks of the armed forces after extensive screening.
  
• Peeler 33, Captain Elizabeth Carter. Accompanying Lionheart on a mission to investigate talking animals and a 'boy from nowhere'. Apparently killed in action in the antarctic, dying in Lionhearts arms, though a computer from the future said it would 'rebuild her'. Her fate remains a mystery.
  
  
  
• Ernest 'Ernie' Slobotham, Sergeant Major, retired, batman of General Wynn, confidante and a hard nut. Crack shot, excellent fist fighter.
  
• Bletchley Park, home of DICE and one of the bases of MI6, otherwise known as the SIS (secret intelligence service). Where the code breaker taken from a U-Boat was 'cracked'
  
  
• Henry Carter -a 'Doctor' who visits the Vanguard when they awaken. In actual fact a P'utinarian possessed by a shadow demon sent to kill the Vanguard. There are several instances of his visiting the Vanguard, even at the same time.

DICE high ranking operatives:

Science Division: (otherwise known as the Strange Sciences Section)

• Professor Albert Von Martens, from the University of Amsterdam, now a member of the SIS and DICE.
  
• Dr Gerald Mathers-Warren, renowned scientist and an expert in the field of a science called Genetics. He works with Oswald Theodore Avery, Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty, all civilian scientists and experts in their field, but they know nothing of Mathers-Warrens' dual life.
  
• Elizabeth Hope, a leading researcher on powers of the mind. She has some interesting theories, unproven as yet, but we believe her research may be very valuable. (Elizabeth Hope was known as a pioneer in the field of metahuman genetic research in some time lines. She married a man named Reginald Hammil. Their grandson, a man named Kevin Hammil-Hope, would become the superheroic 'British Bulldog' and serve in the Executive...

Bad Guys of note


Mr Donald Brendoone, supplier of military hardware to the Government and influential businessman. Runs 'McHardy and Brendoone Ltd' the head offices and main factory of which is in Glasgow. Possibly involved in industrial espionage, murder and other criminal activities. On top of this, appears to be backed by an as yet undiscovered benefactor, and also able to call on what appears to be superhuman enforcers. Kitten (Joanna Van Der Berg, a Vanguardian) is the only one with proof or knowledge of his activities in her alter ego of Julie Avery, secretary to the minister of war, sent to Glasgow to investigate the malfunctioning weapon parts Brendoones company was churning out. However, Brendoone is no dummy, and will have known the Ministry would send someone. Does he know more about the Vanguard than he lets on? He appears to be very well connected in Westminster circles...


Hellbat, encountered by Kitten when investigating Brendoone. Ability to emit sticky combustible acid that melts through thin metal and burns even whilst being doused in water, flight, some measure of endurance and agility, and claws. Other powers possibly possessed. Origin: unknown, but may be connected to Brendoone and his mysterious benefactor.

Both first encountered in Kitten Issue #1

When it transpired that one of the Vanguard (General Wynn) had a unique ability that could empower others by 'filling in the gaps' of certain DNA strands, the allies seized upon it as a lifeline. Immediately, Wynn, Forbes and Dawson of DICE formed a secondary team, as back up to the 'Vanguard' their premier superheroic team. Though separate, the two would band together as and when required, and Wynn has not ruled out more empowerment. The process is tricky, however. Giving the power to the wrong person would be disastrous, indeed, Tank Man has already proven himself to be a poor choice. DICE hope to turn him around, but in the meantime the team continues to train. One, Silver Sentinel, was volunteered for active duty almost immediately after besting Tank Man in a training fight.

In game terms I waived the costs on higher grades of powers in some cases as they only start with 3 powers, so at most 5 if all the slots were sunk into one power (that's mechanics stuff, feel free to ignore!). Some have more powers, but weaknesses to compensate. We have:

Justiciars (Vanguard team 2)

Silver Sentinel (elevated to the Vanguard team)
Steve Jenson, male, early 20s
Powers: Flight, Energy Blast, Armour, Metal morphing/deforming (used to make armour and inflict 2d6htk/frame against metal objects, dividers ignored)
Notes: Honourable. Father died at the tail end of WW1, Mother missing, presumed dead after the Nazis sunk the SS Athenia. Desperate to get back at the Nazis.

Hothead
Mark Harford, male, mid twenties
Powers: Energy Attack (fire, Quick Blast), Field Manipulation (fire), Flight, Energy Field (attacks anything within 3 feet with 2D6htk and -2DD as an auto parry to all incoming attacks and anything he touches suffers the same. Whenever he uses any power this is active and covers him in flames. He is immune to most fire and heat sources when this is active. However, if he is placed in an environment where this power will not work, like underwater or in vacuum, NONE of his powers will work at all. Partial water immersion he can handle, total he cannot. A prolonged attack with a hose will put his flames out, and cancel his powers until he escapes the jet of water.)
Notes: Smug. He's powerful, knows it, and one of the flashier members of the group.

Tank Man
Robert Bollinger, male, early 20s
Powers: Larger (taller), Strength Grade 1, Vigour
Notes: Arrogant and insufferable. Already reprimanded (depowered) by General Wynn after only a few days.

Mist Maiden
Jane Serford, female, early 20s
Powers: Intangibility, Weather Control, stunner
Notes: Shy, pretty, feels out of her depth. Defers to the others. Combat role limited due to needing to be tangible to affect anything.

Thunderclap
Ian McDermott, male, mid 20s
Powers: Energy Attack (range touch, sonics, Quick Blast and High Power) Tough Skin, Vigour
Notes: Formerly a boxing champion for his regiment, now delivers a 'sonic boom' when he uses his power to punch something. Good team player.
WOUNDED - Lost his lower legs in battle against the Nazis.

Fastback
Mary Tremlett, female, mid 20s
Powers: Speed Grade 3, super speed punches (at a cost of 3Htc she can 'buy' an extra 1D6Htc damage when she attacks. Whilst this means she can do a reasonable amount of damage, she ends up hurting herself quite a lot into the bargain.)
Notes: Confident, joker, cheeky, way with the men. Since gaining her powers any use of them requires her calorific intake to quadruple for the day. Without enough food she will take 1D6 htc/hour.
(Fastback)

Spiderweb
Harry Burns, male, late teens
Powers: Speed, Agility, Wall Crawling
Notes: Cocky, joker, feels a need to impress and justify his place in the team. Uses wrist mounted hand guns that fire a variety of munitions. Carries experimental compacted 'net bombs' that explode and cover the target in strands of sticky web glue that slow them down.
KILLED IN ACTION - whilst on a mission in Berlin by a Shadow Demon agent.

Void
Charles Hemmingsworth II, male, late twenties
Powers: Magic Grade 2 (Energy Strike - speciality, Hallucinations, Conjuring, Hypnosis)
Notes: Considers the other team members to be children. Haughty, imperious, all business. Little or no sense of humour but underneath it he is fiercely loyal to the team and would die for them. Dresses in all black, head to toe, with a black cloak. His energy strike is 'black' cold energy, and his Hallucinations tend to involve darkness, as do the creatures he summons from the 'void of his cloak'.
KILLED IN ACTION - whilst on a mission in Berlin by a Shadow Demon agent, moments after Spiderweb.

Sterling Silver
William Buxton, male, mid twenties
Powers: Strength, Flight, Vigour
Notes: Poster boy. Dashing good looks, gets on with everyone. The ladies love him, the men want to follow him into battle. Feels weight of responsibility on his shoulders as he is a natural leader. He's also homosexual, something frowned upon back then.
WOUNDED - 90% Burns, completely disfigured, Hospitalised in battle against the Nazis

Garland
Marianne Keene, female, mid twenties
Powers: Plant Control (a form of field manipulation. Can alter the movement and growth of plants at will, but can't give them abilities they don't have) Regeneration (only when in touch with soil. Even if killed, a small piece of her in contact with soil will regenerate completely. She is essentially immortal and ageless, but the process of total regeneration takes weeks for limbs, months for the torso and head) Energy Attack (a form of spore blast - she can fire a torrent of various living plants which grow in the air and attack living targets. No effect on non living objects. Quick Blast and Reduced Dividers) Vigour (though fire bases attacks do double damage against her)
Notes: Marianne becomes green skinned with leaves for hair and bark covering her comic code authority areas in order to use any of her powers. Essentially, she has become an elemental, though no one knows the true extent of her abilities (in other words, they don't know she can regenerate yet). Calm, motherly, reluctant fighter. Team medic.
WOUNDED - Comatose in a forest near Berlin, letting nature heal her. May be transforming into a 'higher state', something Wynn hasn't foreseen.

Anchor
Jock Hanrahan, male, mid twenties
Powers: Strength Grade 2, Larger Grade 2 (powers are either on, or off. There is no variance, and his weight is nearer the ton mark rather than 400lbs. This presents problems on wooden floors, soft ground, water etc)
Notes: Always laughing, the scot turns deadly serious on the subject of Nazis. Despite not being particularly resistant to damage he's always at the forefront of any battle. He has 50 strength, 22 Vigour, making him the strongest of the Justiciars AND the Vanguard unless the Vanguard call on their dark power. However, he wears only ultra light chainmail (DC5) so dividers are Htc /2 Htk /3
KILLED IN ACTION - in Vanguard Issue #4 by Nazis as Anyman fought to free a camp full of aliens

As part of the deal to get hold of a crashed P'utinarian spacecraft, the DICE hierarchy agreed to exchange superhumans for the downed ship, held at Groom Lake (otherwise known as area 51 in the US state of Nevada). General Wynn (Stormwarden) empowered three US soldiers from the embassy in London, and they travelled with Lionheart and P'ertaria (A P'utinarian who'd 'defected' to the allies side in order to secure Lunarium and with it, hopefully cause a mass switch from the Nazis for her people) to the US. There, Silver Sentinel had already travelled through the teleportation facility of the spacecraft from the Faroe Isles north of Scotland to the US, as had Frostbite a while before, though he'd been waylaid with an adventure in Atlantis before returning to the US.

The three American superheroes were:

Henry Buckfield Fireman E10 S10 D10 V13 Htc47 Htk42 Powers: Field Manip (flame) Energy Attack (Flame, -3DD) Flight (grd 1) Fire Sheath (1D6htk to any incoming attacks as a parry, and does 1D6htk -3DD with a touch)
Charlie Mayburn Blocker E9 S34 (12) D10 V20 (10) Htc75 Htk81 Powers: Tough Skin (grd 1) Strength (grd 2 +14, +10) Vigour Grade 1 (+10) Div Htk4 htc3
Gary Mahone Lodestone E13 S9 D11 V11 Htc42 Htk38 powers: Field Manip (magnetic) Energy Attack (magnetic, quick blast) Force Field (General Force Barrier 14htk) Flight (grd 1)

Of the three, only Blocker survived the murderous assault of a Shadow Priest possessed alien. Fireman and Lodestone died in combat, victims as much of their inexperience as the creatures power.

The Lore Knights

The Lore Knights were ancient guardians of the people and the land from threats of all kinds, including those man was never meant to know about. They came and went as the lands and people of Britain needed, summoned by some great and powerful spirit of the land that transported the Knights to wherever they were needed. The base of the Lore Knights was located in the village of Caer Alwyn, under the ancestral home of the Earl St John. Once, it was the castle that formed the heart of the village, and the Lore Knights would ride out, but that has long since lapsed into ruin and now remains a tourist attraction.

In 1940 the Vanguardian known as Anyman saved the still living Queen Victoria from Nazi saboteurs, and was introduced to a man named Harry Peterson, a relation of the guard that watched over Queen Victoria. Though the guard died, his weapon was passed on and Peterson, with Anymans help, ventured to the town of Caer Alwyn to fulfil his destiny, to become a Lore Knight.

After placing the sword in a slot around a throne, strange lights flashed, and an eerie voice called out the Lore Knights oath...

"When day is dark, and Evils might,
threatens to overwhelm the light,
warriors will rise, fighting evil evermore,
The Crusaders, the new Knights of Lore"

It then said "Choose a form" and the first thing that popped into Petersons' head was Captain blood, the role played by the actor Errol Flynn in the film of the same name from 1935. He changed form, and took on a remarkable semblance to the actor in the clothes he worse for the role, save with a domino mask and a spectral sword, forever wreathed in smoke and possessing magical powers. He also had a rope that could attach and extend at will, allowing him to swing from virtually anything as the Pirate would do in the film. It obeyed his every command though, seeming like a live thing! As well as superhuman strength, speed, agility and endurance, the sword and rope combined with an as yet unrevealed power (hint: means to travel on the sea) he became Buccaneer, the first of a new breed of Lore Knights!

Roll Call

Bucaneer
Morningstar
Bowcaster

Alien Races

P'utinarians

These are a race of grey oozing shape shifters, stronger than humans, able to cling to surfaces and compress/stretch their bodies in ways we consider unimaginable! They were stranded beyond Pluto in Earths solar system when their enormous 'world ship' ran low on energy, and have been stuck there hundreds of years. When the Nazis, with the aid of Damon Trowers and his future conglomerate of evil, offered precious fuel - Lunarium - to the P'utinarians they aligned themselves to the Axis cause. They provide manpower, shuttle craft that serve as heavily armed and armoured guard towers across the Nazi Empire, and their alien technology, which is centuries ahead of Earth. However, many have found that the Nazis have no intentions of honouring their agreement and despise all the Axis powers represent! Their leader is P'ulesin, on the high council, but several elements on that council are pro-nazi and cannot be trusted. Anyman has the consciousness of Putty, a P'utinarian, inside him. When the Nazis betrayed the P'utinarians (in the changed timeline where they won World War II) many went into hiding as humans. Puttys parents were one such couple, and the Nazis killed them, prompting Putty to fight back. When he gained the Dark Power he had the perfect weapon to use against the insidious foe.

Notable examples:

P'ertaria - shares several adventures with the Vanguard (WWII Lionheart issues 1-2, Vanguard Issue 2)
P'ulesin - leader of the council on the world ship (The Vanguard issue #3 page 3 onwards - archived in story so far)
Putty - one of the Vanguard who went into the past to stop the Nazis. Allied with the Dark Power which makes him one of the most powerful beings in the known universe

First Encountered: (The Vanguard Issue #3 - The Vanguard, The long Dead Queen and the Holy Grail page 1 onwards)

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Skralls

A race of reptilian humanoids. They lay thousands of eggs at a time, and are cannibalistic. Despite this they are massively overpopulated on their various planets and aggressively expand through the universe, adopting the alien technology of races they eliminate. The lowest caste are used as food and labour. Some are given implants that direct their actions, and are assigned tasks as slaves on vessels such as this. The more aggressive, larger ones are turned into warrior Cyborgs. There are almost unlimited castes, and the highest echelons are the Queens, females able to lay the biggest egg clutches. Only rivalry between the Queens and their billions of followers prevents the Skrall people from banding together and forming a massive threat to every sentient being in the universe!

Notable examples:

Skrall technician - perform menial tasks like a robot. They use implants that prevent them from free thinking. Like all Skralls they can eat just about anything, and adapt to almost any environment. (Game stats: non combatants. A single hit will render one unconscious)

Warrior Cyborg - bigger Skralls fed on a diet of other Skralls and cast into barbaric slave pits to fight for the honour of being dissected and rebuilt as a cyborg warrior. (Game stats: 3 frames E10 S25 D9 V12 Htk37 /2 Htc34 /2 WC1 D2d6+10 Htc or pistol 3D6+3htk and 1D6=3 htk with -1 DD. Powers: stretching, cyborg implants, strength G1, Stunner (bite) at WC0 3D6htc -2DD needs to grab first.)



First Encountered: World War II - The Vanguard Issue #2 (page 9 onwards)