Rogues' Gallery
Rogues' Gallery
Shortcut to: Drealmer, Greenthumb, Master Macabre, Succubus, Tophat, Flux
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As a small and sickly child, Billy Dawson was tortured by nightmares that came upon him even while he was awake. In time, no school would accept him and his parents could not cope with his constant terror. The state asylum seemed to be the only place where he could get help. Much of his treatment could be termed experimental, but cruel would be a better word. One doctor diagnosed him with strong projective ESP; another locked him in a small windowless room, theorizing that sensory deprivation would cure his "malady". After months in this pitch-black chamber, he was far from cured - in fact, he became psychotic. But he had learned to control his mental powers. He was released only when the doctor who confined him was found dead in his bed one morning of unknown causes. As Drealmer, he had learned to enter and control the dreams of others - and kill them. It is this skill that makes him an unusually effective practitioner of the art of extortion. |
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Dr. Horace "Greenthumb" Bartholomew had the potential to become the greatest horticulturist in history. He earned his living by developing new chemical food preservatives, but his true love was creating hybrid plants that could thrive even in the endless gloom of Noctropolis. His laboratory boasted one of the finest chemical labs in the City of Night and a brilliantly lighted greenhouse in the midst of a world gone dark. Dr. Bartholomew was perfectly content to dedicate his entire life to his fields of research. It took a single accident to radically change Dr. Bartholomew’s mind (and his basic molecular structure). The mixture of two mislabeled chemicals triggered an explosion that killed him instantly. But his plants survived... and took measures to revive their "master". Their tendrils surrounded and filled his corpse, infusing it with their mutant essence. A new Greenthumb arose from the husk of the old, more plant than human, dedicated to the faithful vegetation that had given him new life. He has since embarked on a career of robbery, blackmail, extortion, kidnapping, and outright murder to obtain the funds necessary to sustain life in his depraved greenhouse. |
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Dr. William Blish was the most brilliant, innovative, and controversial surgeon at Noctropolis General Hospital. His research into surgery without anesthesia was groundbreaking in terms of new surgical techniques, as well as in the numbers of lab animals sent to mass graves in medical waste landfills. His seeming indifference to the suffering of his experiments shocked many on his staff. Some thought he wasn’t indifferent at all. One night the Subterranea gang abducted Dr. Blish and took him to their underground hideout. The gang’s leader had been slashed to ribbons, and a surgeon was needed to save his life. Blish patched up the gang leader, but the Subterraneans refused to let him leave. They captured and tortured rival gang members to death with his surgical tools, making the doctor watch. To his horror, Dr. Blish began to enjoy the show, and to instruct the Subterraneans in the art of pain. The buried streak of sadism that had played a part in his research now overwhelmed him. As Master Macabre, he abandoned his previous role as a healer and assumed a new one as a twisted killer. |
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Sister Mercer worked as an emergency room nurse in Noctropolis General Hospital. One night, a crazed man staggered in, fell to his knees, and begged the nun for help: he was possessed by a demon who forced him to perform horrifying sexual crimes. The sister sedated and restrained the man, then summoned Father Desmond. While Father Desmond attempted to perform an exorcism, the man went into horrible spasms; snapping his leather straps, he seized Sister Mercer by the throat. They screamed in unison, in identical voices, and then fell silent. Sister Mercer laughed a deep, throaty laugh, then turned and crashed through the ER’s glass door. Her nun’s habit was later found shredded in the oily, swirling water of a gutter. Sister Mercer is now known as Succubus. She casts a spell of seduction over her victims, then sacrifices them in bloody rites. But the true purpose of her life is to pursue and destroy Father Desmond, whom she hates and fears for his power of exorcism. |
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She started life as Cynthia Burrows, the daughter of poor and abusive parents. To escape the turmoil of her home life, she developed a fascination with magic shows. She learned simple tricks from books and vowed to become the greatest magician of all time. As she grew older, she immersed herself in school, developing an interest in physics which she hoped to apply to the field of magic. Though her love and command of magic helped her to relax, academic pressures strained her fragile sanity. When her mentor, the chairman of the university physics department, attempted to assault her, her mind snapped. She was no longer Cynthia Burrows, she was Tophat, magician extraordinaire and merciless criminal. Whereas many criminals ply their trade in darkness, Tophat carries hers out in a center ring of her own devising, complete with flash, glitter, and spilled blood. |
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Throughout the populace of Noctropolis, whispered rumors tell of an insidiously evil character only known as Flux, whose plans seems to revolve around orchestrating other villains' assaults on the city from afar, to further his own goals. This mysterious mastermind is the prime suspect for releasing all the criminal elements of the City of Night from their imprisonment to gain their trust and gratitude.
Description provided by Matt Shade.