Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Dr. Alton Page

This week's Devoted comes from Corvalis Chemicals, a Standing 3 conspiracy. I swear, not every conspiracy agent is a charlatan of one stripe or another! But there are a pretty decent number of them in the Web of Pain.

The usual caveat applies: This is a first draft, so there will be changes.

Doctor Alton Page

Quote: “I hate them as much as you do, but they’re holding my wife and children hostage.”

Background: Soon after Alton Page received his PhD in Theatre Arts & Performance Studies he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Although doctors were able to remove it surgically, it wasn’t without complications, and Alton found himself unable to speak or keep musical rhythm. His desperate search for an effective treatment led him to a rehabilitation clinic that referred him to Corvalis Chemicals.

Dr. Tamara Sun’s Divergence restored his faculties, and Alton couldn’t have been more grateful for that miracle. Tamara asked him to stay on for further examination, and although he wanted to return to teaching at the university, he thought it only fair. His transformation intrigued Dr. Sun for two reasons. First, he didn’t experience the bouts of intense aggression that were common among other test subjects. Second, he could render nearby Remade pliable and obedient even when they succumbed to their violent urges.

Corvalis Chemicals offered Alton a stipend that would make his tenured colleagues green with envy, so Alton submitted himself to further testing. After five years, Dr. Sun successfully synthesized the first Corvalis Compound from his blood. Recognizing that this wouldn’t be the end of the Deviant’s usefulness, the scientist took Alton under her wing and made him her assistant. Together, they developed the new formulations of the Corvalis Compound that have become one of the conspiracy’s key profit centers.

Tamara’s death hit Alton hard, and he hasn’t been the same since. The show must go on, though, and he has done his best to live up to her legacy. To that end, he has taken to letting people assume he is a trained doctor and scientist, making a show of working in a laboratory filled with many a bubbling beaker and mysterious compound. In truth, he has enough control over his abilities to produce a new formulation of Corvalis Compound whenever one is needed, which he then subjects to the process Tamara developed to mass produce it for distribution.

It isn’t lost on him, however, that he’s a fraud and incapable of advancing the conspiracy’s scientific understanding or of developing new products. To deflect attention from this, he has demanded more and more test subjects while insisting that he’s close to some nebulously defined breakthrough.

Appearance: Alton is a balding white man in his early 40s. He typically dresses in shabby sweats, t-shirts, socks, and sandals. When playing his role as scientist and doctor, he usually throws on a clean lab coat and stethoscope, but this does nothing to hide the sandals.

Roleplaying Hints: Alton talks a big game, throwing out large, impressive-sounding words. With test subjects, he plays at being a kindly doctor who is at once approachable and brilliant and who never promises a miracle but heavily implies one. If threatened, especially by Renegades, he rapidly spins a sob story about how he was abducted by Corvalis and only works for them because the conspiracy is holding his family hostage; he’ll say literally anything he thinks might save his skin, and if he has any true talent it is in correctly identifying what that might be.

Origin: Epimorph

Clade: Mutant

Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 2; Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2; Presence 2, Manipulation 3, Composure 2

Mental Skills: Academics 3, Crafts 2, Medicine 1, Occult 1, Science 1

Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Larceny 2 (Lockpicking), Survival 1

Social Skills: Empathy 2 (Cold Reading), Expression 3, Persuasion 3, Subterfuge 3 (Feigned Sincerity)

Merits: Branching Fracture (Genetic Disorder; Mental), Far-Reaching (Cursed Flesh) 1, Mastered Technique (Reformulate)

Willpower: 4

Stability: 6

Conviction: 1

Loyalty: 4

Aspiration: Skip out of a consultation to take a nap

Initiative: 5

Defense: 3

Speed: 9

Health: 7

Size: 5

Acclimation: 1

Adaptations: Desperation, Evolve, Forced Growth

Persistent Scars: Genetic Disorder (Physical; Hidden Compartments, Immunity) 3, Sleepy (Mental; Cursed Flesh; Caveat [+1 Magnitude; only affects Remade]) 2

Variations: **Cursed Flesh (Scar-free Magnitude; Boon, Secretion, Token; Subliminal Conditioning 3; Aura, Flexibility) 4, Hidden Compartments (Varied Inventory) 2, Immunity (Drugs/Poison, Fire) 2

* Although these are Dr. Page’s default Scars, he makes ample use of the Evolve Adaptation to swap out a Scar that would be a burden in the current situation for one that will cause less trouble.

** Targets treat Cursed Flesh and any Scar imposed by it as a Physical Scar even if it would normally be a Mental or Social Scar. Characters who are immune to drugs and poison can’t be affected by Alton’s Cursed Flesh.

Techniques: Glitchy Scar (Evolve Adaptation; Hidden Compartments and Immunity always count as Mental Variations even if Dr. Page swaps out Genetic Disorder for another Persistent Scar using Evolve [i.e., the Branching Fracture Merit “follows” these Variations]); Reformulate (Cursed Flesh, Evolve Adaptation; when using the Evolve Adaptation on Cursed Flesh, may treat this as a change in Scar instead of Variation as long as only the Scar imposed by Cursed Flesh is changing).

Acquainted: +1 Presence, +1 Composure; +1 Empathy, +1 Expression, +1 Persuasion, +1 Science, +1 Subterfuge; Cursed Flesh (Scar-free Magnitude; Boon, Secretion, Token; Glitch 3, Lumbering 3, Masochism (Agony Addiction) 3, or Subliminal Conditioning 3; Aura, Flexibility, Versatile) 5; Sleepy (Mental; Cursed Flesh; Groggy; Caveat [+1 Magnitude; only affects Remade]) 4; Adaptable (Unchanging) Merit

Personal: +1 Manipulation; +1 Athletics, +1 Empathy, +1 Medicine, +1 Persuasion, +1 Subterfuge; Acclimation 2 (Stability 7; *** Bad Penny Technique), Far-Reaching (Cursed Flesh) 2

Obsessive: +1 Wits; +1 Occult, +1 Stealth, +1 Survival; Boneless 2; Genetic Disorder 4

*** Bad Penny (Evolve and Unchanging Adaptations): When a conspiracy uses Improbable Escape to preserve Alton from capture or death (Black Vans, p. XX), it enjoys a +3 bonus to the conspiracy action