Artery
| Artery | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Image Source: Blood Power Golem by Teddy Boar | |||||||
| Reputation |
| ||||||
| Author | Someplace Somewhere (capes) | ||||||
| Pronouns | He/Him | ||||||
| Civilian name | Basil Moore | ||||||
| Alignment | Hero / Mercenary | ||||||
| Affiliation | None (Denver) | ||||||
| Age | 23 | ||||||
| Status | Active | ||||||
| Nationality | Australian | ||||||
| Approver | Leah | ||||||
| Trigger Type | Single Standard Trigger | ||||||
Publicly Available Information
Artery operates as a sometimes charitable hero for hire, though has been known to perform mercenary work for the less scrupulous. Signs of their activity first appeared sometime after a Leviathan attack on the East coast a few years ago and it is theorized that they triggered during the event.
They started being noticed operating in Denver in the last few months and it is assumed the city is their current residence. Artery is theorized to be either a changer, breaker, or master being capable of producing or controlling vast amounts of blood, with sites of their activity being characterized by gruesome messes.
Given that the origin of this blood is unknown, it is recommended that this cape should not be approached.
PRT / Government Information
Costume Appearance
Basil forgoes a typical costume as his changer power does an adequate job of protecting his identity. Instead his form is soaked in a thick layer of blood, which clings viscously to his body, especially around his face, obscuring his features.
Excess blood pools at his feet, following his movements like a ferrofluid around a magnet. For protection, he wears an underlayer of (re)stolen PRT issue body armour that’s been stripped of its markings and modified for comfort.
Civilian Appearance
Basil typically dresses in oversized jumpers and skinny pants, both hiding and accentuating his skinny frame. He has a fairly bookish appearance, wearing thick rimmed glasses with medium length messy, dark brown hair. His default expression is one of mild worry and his smile is usually fairly reserved. He stands around 5’10.
Mentality
Basil possesses a strong sense of determination and commitment to his goals, especially when it comes to supporting those around him, though he often struggles with social conflict.
Physical confrontations he manages fine with, but for emotional ones, he has a habit of running. Basil has an adventurous spirit, rarely shying away from new people, places or things, though he often approaches them cautiously.
He finds it fairly easy to adapt to new places and people, but struggles putting down roots. Despite this, he often finds himself feeling a strong compassion for the communities he does connect with and often tries to help where he can, even if that does mean operating outside of the law.
His strong protective instincts often means he finds himself in the middle of conflict, being unwilling to let even small threats lie unresolved for long.
A significant portion of his drive is drawn from the guilt associated with the loss of his friends and abandonment of his family. He wrestles with the sense of responsibility for their untimely deaths and the shame of running away from home.
He hopes that by helping others, he can absolve himself of some of those painful sins.
Skills & Training
- Cattle Handling
- Investigative Experience
- Business Acumen
- First Aid Training
- Breaking and Entry, Burglary, Carjacking, Mugging
- Basic Combat Experience and Training
- Hit and Run Tactics
Resources & Wealth
Basil lives in a small, rundown apartment and drives a shitbox car, though his apparent poverty is mostly an attempt to keep a low profile. He has significant savings in cash ($60’000), but no active bank accounts, given his technically deceased status.
He works mostly as a hero for hire or mercenary, tracking down small-time criminals and reprobates that the authorities are too busy or unwilling to deal with and fleecing them for all they’re worth. Sometimes that means tackling criminals on behalf of other criminals or powered guardwork, other times it means providing some discounted services for a community in need.
Equipment & Gear
Civilian Gear:
- Glock 19 for home defense
- Burner Phone
- $100 in cash
- Taser and Mace Spray
- Wet Wipes
Cape Gear:
- ‘Liberated’ PRT Issue Level II Body Armour -
- Heavy Duty Zip Ties
- Heavy Duty Wet Wipes
Parahuman Power
Trigger type: single standard trigger
Artery can rapidly produce blood from the surface of his skin, with a flow rate of up to around 1000 litres per minute, or about that of a fire hose, being able to fill an olympic sized pool in around two days.
The produced blood is, for all purposes, identical to his actual blood except that it would appear as something of shard origin by tinker devices and powers that can detect such.
Typically the blood flows evenly across his surface area, though Artery can concentrate the effect into an area the size of his palm, pressurizing its output and causing a water cannon like effect. The force of the blast can easily push him off his feet if not braced against it and reaches up to 60 metres.
Artery can control the blood he produces this way, though to limited effect. Within a few centimetres of his skin he has highly finessed control, beyond this however, he is limited to imprecise pushing and pulling.
He can control the blood up to 50 metres around himself, being able to propel it up to 20 mph. Whilst his control over his blood does not allow him to fly, he can carry himself around with it at the same speed he propels it at, as if riding a continuous wave.
The wave requires a minimum 8’000L of blood to use, taking about 8 minutes to create. He also uses larger waves offensively, usually around the 16’000L size, about that of an above ground swimming pool.
Artery has limited clairvoyance, being able to see, hear and, to a limited extent, feel things through the blood under his control as if it were a physical extension of himself. The blood also acts like an aerated medium for Artery, allowing him to breathe it as if it were air.
Background & Trigger
Born and raised in rural Australia on a large cattle station, Basil’s life was mostly pretty quiet until he graduated highschool. Having worked a little in the family business during his school days, he decided to enrol in a business degree for university to better prepare for his parent’s eventual retirement. During his first year of study, he quickly realised that the agricultural industry was not where he wanted to spend the rest of his life, trapped on a cattle station in the middle of nowhere, but he grit his teeth and made the best of it for the sake of his parents. During his second year he found the opportunity to go on a study exchange to America. Determined to make the most of his time away, he threw himself into the social culture of his new place of study, quickly making a good number of new friends.
All was going well until the endbringer attack. Basil was at a house party when the sirens began, announcing Leviathan's arrival in the city. Moving together, his new friend group tried making their way to the nearest shelter. Unfortunately they were cut off by rising flood waters and had to ascend a nearby apartment building. Despite desperate calls for aid, the local capes were occupied with the endbringer fight and the conflict gradually grew closer, eroding the building's foundation. Eventually the stress was too much for the building to handle and it collapsed, taking him and his friends with it. Basil wasn’t sure how long he was unconscious for, but it must have been at least a few hours, the blood leaking from his friends’ crushed corpses had had enough time to cool. He himself was trapped, his leg and right lung skewered by lengths of rebar. Buried alive in the grave of his friends, slowly bleeding out and with the water level rising, Basil triggered. His ability kept him alive long enough to be rescued by recovery efforts after the battle. Unable to be IDed and feigning memory loss, he stayed in a temporary field hospital until mostly recovered. Being extradited back to Australia would have meant significantly better health care, but Basil was uninterested. He’d already been hesitant about moving back to his parent’s station before the endbringer attack, and now afterwards, he was too different, his experiences had changed him too much. He wouldn’t be able to face them as he was, so he decided it was best that they assume him dead. In the chaos of the aftermath of the endbringer attack, he found a way to falsely identify one of the mangled deceased as himself and slipped away into one of the emergency relief camps. He worked in the city for a while, helping with the recovery efforts, but as the damage was slowly cleared up, it became apparent that he needed a way to earn better money than the little the work for the city afforded. And so he turned to vigilantism, preying on the gangs and criminals that had cropped during the disaster, stealing whatever valuables of theirs he could. Eventually he’d saved up enough stolen wealth to live comfortably for a while, but his activities had drawn him a bit of heat, from both heroes and villains and he decided that it’d be best to move to Denver and start something new.
(Optional) Misc Lore Snippets
Parahuman Intelligence Report
- Note: The following information has been transcluded from the PRT Online Information Services SAGA Database. For more information, please see your PRT-InB point of contact.