Not everyone at Stronghold is an administra- tor or a guard. Since inmates aren’t allowed to have jobs, the superprison requires a substantial work- force to keep everything running smoothly — sec- retaries, cooks, janitors, technicians, and plenty of others. Some of them include:
OVIDIO AGAZA
Ovidio Agaza is just one of the dozens of janitors who help keep Stronghold clean. He’s usu- ally assigned to the Alpha and Beta levels. What sets him apart is that he actively participates in the superprison’s black market. In his cleaning sup- plies and loose-fitting coverall he can smuggle in all sorts of small objects and carry them from one inmate to another... all for a “small fee,” of course. He’ll lose his job if he ever finds out, but the money’s so good he can’t resist taking the chance. About half of his illicit earnings feed his gambling habit; the rest go to his wife for family needs.
DONNIE “GRAY” GRAYSON
Few people in Stronghold are as hated as “Gray” Grayson, the superprison’s head chef (“head executioner is more like it,” as Freak- show once said). The truth is that Stronghold’s cuisine isn’t bad as institutional food goes, but many inmates are used to gourmet fare and find having to eat cafeteria food intolerable. And they blame it all on the cooking staff in general, and Grayson in particular. The truth is Gray is a kind-hearted man who has no idea how univer- sally he’s reviled by the people he serves; he’d be deeply hurt to find out, since he does his best to prepare good, nutritious food. He even created a program to donate most of Stronghold’s unused food to various New Mexico charities.
CAROLINE MOSEBY, M.D.
Young, pretty, and vivacious, Dr. Caroline Moseby is one reason why many male inmates who feel even the slightest touch of the sniffles put themselves down for sick call. A dyed-in-the- wool liberal, she began working at clinics helping the poor and disadvantaged after completing her internship. This led to some work with local prisons. When she heard about a job opening at Stronghold’s medical facility, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to work with supervillains (many of whom she feels are unfairly victimized by the
criminal justice system) because of the unique medical challenges they often present. She often complains to Warden Wildman about how various inmates are treated and argues for greater leeway in addressing their medical problems. The Warden and Chief Grasse (whom she does not get along with at all) consistently reject her more extreme suggestions on the grounds that they involve a risk of escape or danger to prison staff.
MICHAEL “MICK” WATKINS
Mick Watkins is possibly the most beloved member of the Stronghold staff, since he’s the one who brings the daily pushcart around to sell snacks, toiletries, and similar non-dangerous items to the staff and inmates. A local who grew up in Banks, he suffers from some mild learning disabilities that make it difficult (if not impossible) for him to hold most jobs. A family friend got him the job at Stronghold, where he’s thrived. Friendly and outgoing, he seems to get along with even the most reserved or disturbed inmates. His arrival on a quad usually results in a flurry of buying and the chance to hear the latest gossip, since Mick loves to talk, talk, talk about anything interesting that’s going on in the prison.
The other reason the inmates likes to see Mick so much is that he’s a linchpin in the Strong- hold black market. He secretly transports goods back and forth among inmates for a fee. He won’t touch anything dangerous or illegal (like narcot- ics), but he’s got no problem making a few extra bucks carrying cigarettes around.
PETE WILLIS
Peter “Pete” Willis is one of the many techni- cians who keep Stronghold’s security and moni- toring devices in tip-top shape. Unlike most of his colleagues, who enjoy their jobs, Pete can’t stand his. He hates New Mexico, he hates his boss, he hates being “ordered around” by “pompous jerks, and he hates having to be around supervillains. He’d much rather work somewhere else... but the money is really good and he’s got a mountain of credit card debt to pay off, so he can’t afford to quit. But if something doesn’t change, sooner or later... probably sooner... he’s going to change from “irked” employee to “disgruntled” employee — and he’s in a position to cause a lot of trouble, perhaps even precipitate another Great Stronghold Breakout, if he put his mind to it.
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Deathstroke
Background/History: Damian and Adrian DuMorte were born and raised in Alaska. When they were nine and seven, respectively, their father, a kindly man, died of an unexpected heart attack. Two years later their mother remarried, but the man she thought would make a good father for her boys turned out to be an ogre. Abusive and cruel, he imposed strict rules on the household and beat the boys for even the slightest acts of disobedience.
Things got worse when the boys were in their early teens and their mutant powers — Damian’s control of sound, Adrian’s control of ice and cold — manifested. Now their stepfather had one more thing to hate them for. Fearing that other people would turn on the whole family if they found out the boys were “muties,” he ordered them not to use their powers at all. Whenever he caught them breaking this rule, the beatings they got were particularly savage. But this didn’t stop them from practicing with their powers; it just made them bitter and angry, with an intense hatred for authority figures.
By the time they were in their late teens, the brothers’ powers had become strong enough, and they’d learned enough about using them, to stand up for themselves. The next time their stepfather came after them, Adrian froze him in a block of ice. He swore and struggled, saying he was going to “kill both of you to protect real people from freaks!” That was the final straw for Damian, who unleashed a sonic scream that broke half the bones in the man’s body and ruptured his lungs. They left him to die in agony and fled Alaska forever.
Immensely proud of their powers and certain they could become fabulously rich as supervillains, they designed costumes and chose the names “Deathsinger” and “Frost.” They enjoyed some early successes, though nothing major. They fought superheroes several times, and were caught on more than one occasion, but somehow they always managed to escape before they wound up in Stronghold.
In 1989 Deathsinger decided they needed to “hit the big time” and launch some major schemes. That meant recruiting other villains and forming a team under his leadership; there was only so much the two of them could do on their own. He put out some feelers in the underworld and soon had a team of five. The three new additions were: Shockwave, a super-strong enforcer from Jersey; Stinger, whose insect powers were often eclipsed by his intellectual vanity and arrogance; and Death
Commando, a military veteran with a suit of light powered armor, a blaster rifle, and a bad attitude.
Christening his team “Deathstroke,” Deathsinger set out to make a mark on the under- world. Unfortunately his overconfidence and ambi- tion weren’t matched by his team’s competence. None of them were underpowered or inexperienced... but somehow nothing seemed to go their way. The few successes they achieved were more than offset by the jobs they botched or the times they had to flee from superheroes. Despondent, Deathsinger actually hired a publicist to try to change the team’s image. The publicist created new costumes for the team, con- vinced Deathsinger to change his name to the more ominous “Requiem,” and added a new member, a female mentalist named Scatterbrain, to the team. It seemed like a good start on a new stage of their criminal careers.
Requiem thought things had finally turned around in 1993 when Deathstroke teamed up with a scientific genius named Strangluff Draconis (no relation to the VIPER villain Draconis) in a scheme to take over the world. Doctor Draconis wore powered armor that made him a match for any member of Deathstroke, and when properly seeded throughout the world his secret robot armies would allow him and his allies to become rulers of the Earth. But it turned out he was using Deathstroke for his own ends. When Requiem realized what was going on, he and his teammates turned on Dr. Draconis and helped the Sentinels defeat him. They paid a high price — one of Dra- conis’s energy bolts blew a hole the size of a fist through Death Commando’s chest — but because they were instrumental in saving the world, the Sentinels didn’t turn them in.
That proved to be a mistake, since Requiem, despite his arrogance, was no fool. He took giga- bytes of Dr. Draconis’s scientific data with him when he left and immediately started working with underworld scientists to put it to use. The plan he came up with was to extort ransoms from Earth’s governments after putting a massive energy cannon, nicknamed “the Dagger,” into orbit around the planet. For once, the scheme was actu- ally working as planned, and the world trembled at Deathstroke’s feet! But then the Justice Squadron found the team’s secret headquarters and attacked. The battle raged long and hard... and then a punch from Brawler knocked Requiem into one of the control consoles for the orbital laser cannon, changing its target from Washington, DC to the battlefield. It fired, and before the Squadron could shut it off Shockwave, Stinger, and Scatterbrain had been vaporized.
InMaTes
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94 Personnel Hero System 5th Edition Revised
This time Requiem and Frost weren’t so lucky. They were arrested, tried, and convicted of dozens of crimes, including manslaughter counts for the deaths of their teammates. Life sentences in Stronghold followed... and they’ve been there ever since.
Campaign Use: Requiem and Frost still think of themselves as being part of the “team” Death- stroke, though at this point it’s just the two of them so it’s not really a team. Their mutant physi- ologies give them long lifespans, so they could be in Stronghold for decades... or could be ready anytime for an opportunity to escape. Their status as lifers and the fact that they’ve always got each other’s backs makes them something of a force to be reckoned with in the prison community. Appearance: Requiem and Frost are twin broth- ers; they’re both white men, 5’11” tall, with athletic but not overly muscular builds, brown hair, and hazel eyes (though when Frost uses his powers his eyes change to an icy blue-white). However, com- pared to his brother (or any other human), Frost is noticeably pale-skinned. When they were still active supercriminals, they brother wore costumes of similar design: boots, gloves, belt, central chest, and raised collar of a main color; and a half-face mask, side panels, and legs of a secondary color. For Requiem, the primary color was red, the sec- ondary color black. For Frost, the primary color was an icy blue, the secondary color white. Their belt buckles were a distinctive skull.
REQUIEM
Val Char Cost Roll notes
15 STR 5 12- Lift 200 kg; 3d6 [1] 20 DEX 30 13- OCV: 7/DCV: 7 23 CON 26 14-
13 BODY 6 12-
15 INT 5 12- PER Roll 12- 14 EGO 8 12- ECV: 5
20 PRE 10 13- PRE Attack: 4d6 10 COM 0 11- 8 PD 5 Total: 20 PD (12 rPD) 12 ED 7 Total: 24 ED (12 rED) 5 SPD 20 Phases: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 10 REC 4 80 END 17
33 STUN 0 Total Characteristics Cost: 143 Movement: Running: 9”/18”
Cost Powers enD 60 Deathsinging: Multipower, 60-point reserve 6u 1) Sonic Scream I: Energy Blast 12d6 6 6u 2) Sonic Scream II: RKA 3d6, Reduced
Endurance (½ END; +¼) 2 6u 3) Sonic Scream III: Energy Blast 6d6,
NND (defense is Hearing Group Flash Defense or being deaf; +1) 6 3u 4) Glass-Shattering Scream: RKA 1d6,
Area Of Effect (8” Radius; +1½), Personal Immunity (+¼); No Range (-½) 4 4u 5) Deafening Scream: Hearing Group
Flash 8d6, Area Of Effect (6” Radius; +1¼), Personal Immunity (+¼); No Range (-½) 6 20 Sonic Control: Find Weakness 11- with
Sonic Screams I-II 0 24 Armored Costume: Armor
(12 PD/12 ED); OIF (-½) 0 6 Fast: Running +3” (9” total) 0 3 High-Range Hearing: Ultrasonic Hearing
(Hearing Group) 0 1 Mutant Lifespan: Life Support
(Longevity: twice normal lifespan) 0 skills
12 +4 with Deathsginging Multipower 2 KS: History 11-
2 KS: Literature 11- 3 Stealth 13- 3 Streetwise 13- 3 Teamwork 13-
Total Powers & Skills Cost: 164 Total Cost: 307
200+ Disadvantages
10 Distinctive Features: Mutant (Not Conceal- able; Always Noticed; Detectable Only By Unusual Senses)
20 Hunted: Stronghold 14- (Mo Pow, NCI, Watching)
15 Psychological Limitation: Overconfidence (Very Common, Moderate)
15 Psychological Limitation: Loyal To His Brother Frost (Common, Strong) 25 Social Limitation: Prisoner (Very Fre-
quently, Severe)