The Silver Beagle, an Anti-Demon Lonestar Creation

[Emerald MoonSilver]

This latest race from yours truly is the "Silver Beagle", and Anti-Demon Mutant produced from those lovely fun loving folks down in Lone Star. I hope you enjoy it.


Silver Beagle


By Emerald Moonsilver

The infernal invasion of Rift’s Earth in America showed a weakness in the C.S. military forces. Although the troops faired quite well against traditional military forces, they were somewhat lacking in fighting demons, especially in hand to hand combat.

The few anti-supernatural forces such as the dog boys were excellent at detecting demonic entities, but they lacked the strength to find them. In order to fight such creatures a new type of mutant animal needed to be created.

The idea for this new breed of dog boy came from a mutant chimp with an addiction to old earth comic books. The chimp in question “accidently” left some of his book where the good doctor “Dessy B.” could find them. He used these books as an inspiration for his latest creation, the super powered dog boy; “The Silver Beagle.”

This of course is different from his usual source of inspiration; that being doing interpretive dance to the old earth song of “Weird Science”.

More than just genetic tinkering was required though. The “Good Doctor”, had found a way earlier to drain off some dimensional energy from the gate on the lowest level of the complex. IT took a while to find the right amount of energy used to trigger the SB transformation. Earlier attempts tended to not go so well, for the poor “volunteers”.

These new dog boys would not have any of the usual psychic sensing abilities of their brothers. They would retain the dog boys’ usual physical senses mentioned on page 146-147 of the main Rifts RUE book, numbers 6-10 on those pages.

Unlike their brothers the S.B.’s would be sent out only in pairs and were expected to operate in enemy territory of weeks at a time. In order to aid in their mission they were more educated than the usual dog boy including being literate and educated in basic math and various lore skills.


Silver Beagle Dog Boy Variant

Alignment: Most are good or Unprincipled. A few are aberrant, but very loyal to humans, especially Coalition Soldiers. They are led to believe that they are mighty heroes here to save the C.S. from the demon hoards.

Note: The attributes presented below do not take into consideration those gained from their super abilities; these are only the base attributes.

Second note: The abilities mentioned here are contained in the Main Heroes Unlimited book, the powers books and Armageddon Unlimited.

Third Note: Despite the name, Silver Beagles are not a beagle breed. Most are either German Shepherd, of wolf breeds with appropriate stats as mentions on page 149 of the RUE book.

Attributes: I.Q. 3d6, M.E. 3d6+6, M.A. 3d6, P.S. 4d6, P.P. 3d6, P.E. 4d6, P.B. 3d6, SPD. 5d6

Size: Averages around 6 feet males and females.

Weight: 180-200 lbs. All muscle.

Hit Points: P.E. x2 at first level plus 2d6 at each new level.

SDC: 50 plus those gained from skills and super abilities.

P.P.E. 3d6
All silver beagles have the ambidextrous trait as mentioned on page 149 of the RUE book. This provides them with Paired weapon skill, +1 attack per melee, +10% to climbing skill, and +5% to pick locks, pick pockets, palming and concealment skills.

Super Abilities:

Minor:

1. Extraordinary Physical Prowess:

Add 2d4 to P.P. Attribute
Add 3d4 to Speed Attribute
Add 1 extra attack per round
+3 auto dodge. Doesn’t need to expend an action to dodge an attack.
+10% to physical skills requiring dexterity such as prowl, gymnastics, acrobatics, climb, etc.

2. Iron Will: Save Vs. psychic at 12 or Higher
+7 save vs. possession
+6 save vs. mind control
+5 save vs. illusion and horror factor
+3 save vs. magic and disease
+3 save vs. insanity
+20% save vs. coma and death
Skill penalties for confused, dazed, drugged are all half for this character.

3. Energy Expulsion: Divine Energy

Bolt of white energy that does more damage to mortals and supernatural foes of selfish or evil alignments. Strength of blast can be regulated in 1d6 or 1d8 increments.
Range: 700 feet maximum

Damage: 3d8 damage +1d8 per level of exp to supernatural foes with evil or selfish alignments; increased by 50% more when used against dark gods, alien intelligences, demon and devil lords.

2d6 damage +1d6 per level of exp to mortals of selfish or evil alignments.

1d4 damage per level of exp to all good aligned beings.
Duration: Instant

Attacks per Melee: Each energy blast counts as one attack, twin blasts at the same target, using both hands counts as one attack and does double damage. A simultaneous attack at 2 different targets counts as one attack, but is considered to be “shooting wild”.
Bonuses: +3 to strike at aimed shot, +1 strike if shooting wild.

4. Wingless Flight:

Flight speed 200MPH plus 20 per level of experience.
+1 Attack per melee
+2 strike
+2 parry
+4 dodge hovering, up to 80 MPH
+6 dodge flying 90 MPH or above
+4 damage for every 20 MPH while flying
+40 SDC

Major Abilities:

1. Alter Physical Structure: Silver

The character can transform into a being of living silver, resembling a moving metal statue with properties making it very effective at fighting the supernatural.

1. In SDC worlds the character has and A.R. of 16 and 550 SDC. In an MDC world the character has 550 MDC.

2. Normal fires below 1762 F. cause no damage, MDC and magic fire causes half damage. No damage from any cold based attack, can survive water pressure at 2000 feet, but still needs to breathe.

3. Increased Mass and Strength. The character’s weight is increased 3 times, and his strength is increased by an additional 18 +1d4, with strength being (supernatural). Character can carry 200 times his P.S. in pounds and lift 300 times his P.S. Character fatigues at half the rate of normal humans.

4. Other abilities and Things of Note.

The SDC / MDC of the metal form recovers at three times the rate of normal humans. The metal body is cool to the touch and helps obscure heat sensors and optics.
The silver body reflects light reducing damage by lasers and light based attacks by one half.

Speed is reduced by half when in metal form.

Character’s hand to hand attacks does double damage on monsters hurt by silver.

The skills presented below are based on a modified version of the Northern Gun monster responder on page 80 of World Book 31, Northern Gun 1 book.

OCC Skills:

Native Language 98%
Literacy (native) +20%
Other Language (+10%)
Basic Math (+10%)
Camouflage (+10%)
Intelligence: (+6%)
Boxing
Climbing (+10%)
Gymnastics
Hunting
Land Navigation (+10%)
Lore: Demon & Monsters (+15%)
Lore: Faeries & Creatures of Magic (+10%)
Lore: Magic (+10%)
Lore: Vampires (+5%)
Pilot: One of choice (+10%)
Prowl: (+10%) when not “silvered”
Radio Basic (+10%)
Sniper
Swimming (+10%)
Track and Trap Animals (+10%)
Wilderness Survival (+15%)
W.P. Knife
W.P. Rifle
W.P. Energy Pistol
W.P. Energy Rifle
W.P. Heavy Energy Weapons
Hand to Hand: Martial Arts

OCC Related Skills:

Select 3 skills at level 1 and add one additional skill at levels 4, 8, and 12. All new skills start at level 1 proficiency.

Communications: Any (+5%)
Cowboy: Any (+5%)
Electrical: Basic Only
Espionage: Any (+10%)
Horsemanship: General Only
Mechanical: Basic and Automotive only (+5%)
Medical: First Aid or Paramedic (+10%)
Military: Any (+10%)
Physical: Any
Pilot: No robots or power armors
Pilot Related: Any
Rogue: None
Science: None
Technical: Any (+10%
W.P.: Any
Wilderness: Any (+15%)

Secondary Skills:

6 skills at level 1, plus 2 additional skills at level 2, 4, 8, 12. Only add IQ bonus to secondary skills.

Standard Equipment for Silver Beagles:

Most wear a light MDC jumpsuit when not in their Silver Form. (25 MDC) The suit is “held” under their silver form when they change.
They often use silver plated vibroblades and claws (gauntlets), fitted over their changed form.
They have all the usual gear available to them as mentioned in the RUE book, as well most new weapons hand weapons mentioned in World Book 12. In their silver form they can easily carry a large rail gun loaded with either silver or wood coated rounds.

They money and accommodations they are provided though are on par with coalition human troops, which has created some tension amongst the rest of the mutant animals in Lone Star, with a few acts of vandalism taking place. Some S.B.’s have found the phrase, “Glitter Dog”, or “Chromium Canine”, written across their lockers.

Cybernetics: None Needed or wanted by the Silver Beagle troops.

[taalismn]

When I first saw the title of this post, I thought it was going to be something like a flying NEMA-inspired version of the Thunderhound power armor....then I saw it was a genetically engineered Dog Boy.

It's a fair use of the Heroes Unlimited material, and you've avoided the trap of wanting to toss in Dog Boy psionics.

The major beef I can think of immediately with this is that I doubt CS High Command would allow such mutants to exist, as they're TOO powerful when super'ed out. And superpowers are close enough to magic to give the CS fits. If it can't be explained by good old science, and it makes non-humans superior to human beings, then it's going to get censured at the very least.
Desmond Bradford may very well be messing around with stuff like this(after all, that's his perogative as a GOD) but I think he's smart enough not to try running something like this past the attention of his (so-called) superiors at Chi-Town.

If I were running a character(or characters) like this in a campaign or GM'ing a game with them in it, I'd rule/run it that these are the result of a very illegal experiment, limited production run, and maybe not reproducible, with the characters wanting to serve, and allowed to do so as a super secret in-house Lone Star party, but made to understand that while allowed to hunt enemies of the CS, they're just as likely to be hunted by the mainstream CS military if discovered...so they have to hit and run, hide their identities, and not be caught by their own side.

[ShadowLogan]

Super Powers really don't seem necessary, it would seem more in line with known CS practices to:
-equipping the mutant animals with tech (jetpacks, body armor, vibroblades, guns, etc)
-engineer in specific psionic powers (might be beyond them)
-engineer for similar traits
-training (CS Psi-Bat in WB12 for ex)

Is there any basis for the CS to create mutants with Super Powers? I know they experiment with Psionic Powers, but Super Powers seem uncharacteristic of them.

[Emerald MoonSilver]

Super Powers really don't seem necessary, it would seem more in line with known CS practices to:
-equipping the mutant animals with tech (jetpacks, body armor, vibroblades, guns, etc)
-engineer in specific psionic powers (might be beyond them)
-engineer for similar traits
-training (CS Psi-Bat in WB12 for ex)

Is there any basis for the CS to create mutants with Super Powers? I know they experiment with Psionic Powers, but Super Powers seem uncharacteristic of them.

Given that the "good doctor" has created mutants from humans, it seems like nothing is beyond his goals. Remember he's a psychopathic nutcase with delusions of godhood. Consider him a lower class gene splicer on how he views the rest of humanity and any other sentient being.

[taalismn]

[


Given that the "good doctor" has created mutants from humans, it seems like nothing is beyond his goals. Remember he's a psychopathic nutcase with delusions of godhood. Consider him a lower class gene splicer on how he views the rest of humanity and any other sentient being.

World of difference between making human mutants with superpowers and animal mutants with superpowers. As arrogant as he is, I really doubt that Doctor Bradford would grant animal mutants a paradigm-shifting step up in power. He especially wouldn't be able to sell Chi-Town on letting him openly deploy them.
Hell, if he started making superpowers mutants of the sort of MDC -power class like the Silver Beagle, even human ones(maybe especially human ones), that would very be the tripwire incident that has the Prosek kids investigating him send in the troops to lock him up and install new management in Lone Star.
Remember, the CS command ultimately sees Dog Boys and animal 'genies' as DISPOSABLE. Cannon-fodder. They have to be controllable too. Giving Dog Boys, no matter how loyal past interations of the bloodlines have served the CS, the sort of powers the Silver Beagles have, would be too much; not without massive safeguards, genetic killswitches, and the sort of supervision that would undercut their effectiveness in the field. No matter how attached some handlers get to their Dog Boys, the Dog Boys are tools. Talking tools that have to be able to be put down if they malfunction or betray their users.

[Orin J.]

i wouldn't fight too hard about how blisteringly canon-hostile this is, OP's previous stuff has established their campaign is much more hanna-barabra than roddenberry with things like continuity and plot.

that said, i REALLY don't think the CS or lone star would ever qualify an energy source as "divine" since they refuse to approve any sort of religion (since they consider "gods" suspect aliens) and you should probably tinker in some achillies heel that the CS would have an easy time exploiting and most supernaturals woulnd't think to try, like some sorta x-ray emitter to put them into seizures*.

*i'm just poaching something from an old work of mine, you probably can/should think of something better.