Entry in the Original SJ Villian Challenge.
My entry is the villain who lead my PCs into space. As I mention below, I didn't really invent him (extensive mods though). Anyway, since he originally came from a manga, I can give you a link to a pic of him on my web site. http://users.arn.net/~gaijin/anime/nova.jpg
Professor Desty Nova is not my invention. He was the main villain in the truly excellent manga series "Gunnm", called "Battle Angel Alita" when it was translated from the original Japanese. However he doesn't quite fit into the AD&D universe as he is presented in the manga, so I have made extensive modifications.
Name: "Professor" Desty Nova (enjoys being called "Professor", may
actually deserve the title).
Class: Magic User
Level: 25 (at the minimum he must be able to cast ninth level spells, and
he should be at least fifteen levels higher than the highest level party
member)
Sex: Male
Race: Human (?)
Age: Unknown (200+ at the least)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (insane: god complex, driven, manic)
Personality: Professor Nova is a madman. Unlike so many villains he has
no interest in temporal power, money, or ruling the universe. His madness
is that he is driven to experiment with "karma" or "destiny". To this end
he uses his magic to do numerous and horrible things. Unlike the typical
villain that the PCs encounter Nova has no interest in fighting, and will
usually be fairly difficult to find, simply because he isn't pursuing power
and therefore he prefers to remain behind the scenes.
Nova's god complex causes him to believe that he is always right, and that
his actions are both moral and serve the greater good. Despite the god
complex he never lacks a backup plan, or a means of escape (in other words,
he is cocky and self assured, but not to the point of under estimating his
enemies).
Apparently Nova doesn't have a sex drive at all, his drive to overcome
karma has completely supplanted the normal male sex drive. It isn't that
he is unaware of sex, love, etc. he simply is not a participant.
Nova is obsessed with flan (a South American dessert, vaguely
custard-like). It is his favorite food, and he claims that he thinks
better when he eats flan.
History: Nova was born on a planet, but he has never told anyone which
planet. His life was fairly uneventful until he discovered the concept of
destiny, or karma. After that point he became fascinated, and his
fascination led to madness. He has become one of the greatest necromantic,
and biological, mages that has ever lived in order to pursue his study of
karma. He was driven off his home planet when the people there learned
about the results of some of his experiments. Since that time he has
traveled the spheres finding new opportunities, and new victims everywhere
he goes. He keeps no special ship, but makes good use of any ship he can
find.
Physically: Nova is skinny. He has pale pink skin and blond hair. His
eyes are blue, but no one ever sees them. He wears a complex glasses like
thing on his face that obscures his eyes (and a good part of his face as
well). He tends to make dramatic gestures. He has a mark on his forehead
that looks like a circle with a rectangular notch cut out of the top.
Notable experiments, spells, and so forth:
Professor Nova's most important discovery is something that he calls
"restorer". He developed restorer while experimenting with trolls, and
other regenerating creatures. He has never shared the secret of the
restorer with anyone else, but it is known that it is based on troll blood.
Restorer must be magically tailored to the person meant to receive it. A
person injected with restorer meant for someone else will suffer horribly
as his body tears itself apart, and continuously regenerates itself; such a
victim can live on for centuries in a state of constant agony.
Nova injected himself with restorer long ago, it is the secret of his
youth and the reason why he has survived for so long. Nova will begin to
regenerate twenty rounds after he first takes damage at the rate of 10
hp/round. The process is slow to start, but quite rapid once it begins.
Even if his hit points are reduced to the deep negative numbers he will
recover fully. Like a troll he can regrow severed limbs (a process that
takes four months) or he can reattach them. Unlike a troll his severed
limbs will not regrow a new body. If his head is severed Nova has a backup
brain and face in his torso (covered with a layer of skin and muscle it is
not normally visible, however if his head is cut off the regeneration
process will uncover the backup face). He will regrow his head in a year,
or he can reattach it if he can find it.
Unlike trolls Nova can regenerate damage done by fire or acid, to an
extent. If his body is consumed by acid or fire than he will truly die.
However he can regenerate if he is burned horribly, but not completely
reduced to ash.
Presumably cutting his body into small enough pieces, then scattering the
pieces, will also prevent him from regenerating. The problem is how small
is small enough?
The main drawback to this regeneration process is that it makes Nova
terribly hungry. He will need to eat five times his usual amount for
several days after he regenerates. If he loses much blood he will feel
awful (dizzy, nauseated, etc.) until he can restore the blood (if he
ingests some other human's blood the restorer will convert it to his own,
this makes him behave in a vampireic manner if he loses much blood).
It is not recommended that the PCs ever gain restorer for themselves, as
it would severely reduce the fun factor of the game. In my campaign the
PCs never even knew about the restorer (none of them ever decapitated Nova,
and they rationalized the way he managed to survive the other damage they
inflicted upon him in ways that didn't include something like restorer).
Nova also has various magics, alchemical, and biological things that allow
him to alter a person's body, permanently.
The most important magical item Nova owns are his goggles. In addition to
obscuring his face, and making him that much more imposing, they also
confer True Sight, Detect Undead, and Know Alignment on anyone who wears
them.
Nova and Destiny:
As mentioned previously, Nova is obsessed with understanding, and
defeating, karma. He experiments in karma by finding people who have
drives, passions. It doesn't matter to Nova if these passions are good, or
healthy. All that matters is the passion, the intensity. He feels that
fate takes a special interest in driven people, and thus he does as well.
Often he will find people who have been harmed, or even killed, while
pursuing their passions. He will use his regenerative magics (but not
restorer) to bring them back from the dead, or otherwise heal them. He
claims to be able to bring a person back if he has nothing but a bit of
their brain. Presumably he would use the Clone spell (or some variant) in
this extreme.
After he has brought them back, Nova uses a special process to bring out
their inner desires. This process will often make the subject of his
experiments stronger, faster, smarter, higher level, grant them built in
armor, or weapons, or magic. Even Nova can't predict what will happen when
he does this. What is most essential during this process is that the
person concentrate on their drive, a person who has insufficient passion
will acquire a new shape, but it will be malformed, misshapen, and useless
(or even actually painful).
The subjects who become stronger are released, often not even knowing that
Nova did anything for them, to pursue their karma with their new abilities.
Nova observes what they do then using Wizard Eyes, crystal balls, magic
mirrors, and other magics. The ones who become deformed are kept around
the lab, Nova claims to be inspired by their wails.
In his earlier days Nova would often take things away from people. For
example, if confronted with a sculptor, a man who *lived* to sculpt, than
Nova might ruin his hands so he couldn't sculpt any more. After a time he
decided that depriving people of the means to express their passion was the
wrong way to learn about karma, so he decided to give them new ways to
express their passions.
How Nova might be used in a campaign:
The PCs may find an old enemy that they had thought dead suddenly back
with new powers, this is the work of Nova. He is especially fascinated by
revenge, as he finds that the people who seek revenge possess great passion.
Old enemies popping up, often with new and startling abilities, will
doubtless make the PCs wonder what is going on. Eventually they may be
able to track things back to Nova.
It is also possible that Nova might enhance one of the PCs old allies, or
friends, but the enhancement might have unfortunate side affects.
A more insidious possibility is the idea that Nova may have been
instrumental in the survival of one of the PCs before he began adventuring.
In my campaign this is how the PCs learned about Nova, and came into
conflict with him. One of my players wanted to play a Krynn style Red Robe
wizard; he also wanted to play a split personality. My campaign was set in
Toril, and I wasn't planning on introducing any of the PCs to spelljamming
until they got to be fifth level or so.
I told the player that he could play what he wanted to, but that I got to
make it fit. My explanation (which the player was unaware of, and had to
find out over the course of the adventures) was that a Red Robe wizard from
Krynn had been killed by a group of Draconians, Nova discovered the mangled
body and intended to resurrect the wizard, but had to flee Krynnspace
before he could. When he arrived at Toril, Nova began experimenting with
the remains of the wizard, ultimately transplanting part of his brain into
the body of a priest of Tyr (a native of Toril) that he had kidnaped.
As the adventures progressed, the PCs learned the true past of their
companion, and he began to be able to unite his personalities. Finally,
they tracked Nova to a remote island, where they met and fought some of his
servants, and creatures. Nova, having decided not to bother fighting them
had left in a Squid ship, but had left behind a Wasp in the hopes that the
PCs would try to follow him. This got them into space, and gave them a
goal (which they soon found to be quite difficult, space is large, and Nova
is expert at fading into the background). During the Second Unhuman war
the PCs were too busy to worry about Nova, but later tried to track him
down again.
