Tora no Shi

Continuing the series of characters for my as-yet-unnamed Marvel Heroic campaign (no, Homebrewniverse, while clever, is not a name), I'd like to introduce you to Tora no Shi, the Tiger of Death. This character is also for Courtney Cantrell, but we aren't doing troupe play yet. That's probably going to require a little explanation.

Most RPGs (for the less interested or less informed) are one-character focused. One player has one character until the campaign ends or the character dies. Some games support troupe play where you have a rotating stable of characters you cycle through. We are planning to do that per Event, so it's something of a middle ground. In each Event, each player will only have one character. But the next Event will spotlight a different set of heroes in vastly different situations.

I'm taking the lead on this with two interlocking WWII focused Events. The first is stateside and will deal with a McGuffin that is then handed to another set of heroes in the European Theater for the second Event. Captain Tomorrow is Courtney's stateside character, Tora no Shi is her European Theater character.

Everybody got it? Good. Then here's a ninja from a time before ninjas were played out. (Yes, I realized we've reached a point in pop culture where ninjas are no longer played out. I'm very happy about it, but it doesn't negate the fact that the 80s sorta lit them on radioactive fire for a while.) A nod and thanks to Billy Tucci for some of the concepts, written in his comic book Shi, that I folded into this character.

Tora no Shi
Evelyn Hishikawa (Secret)
History:

Evelyn is the child of an American mother and a Japanese born, but nevertheless American citizen, father. They met in Hawaii, fell in love, moved to California to get away from the stifling and hidebound Hishikawa family.

Evelyn was born to the newlyweds shortly after their first anniversary. She was happy, but reserved. To give her confidence, her father taught her the secrets of the Hishikawa family. The Hishikawa were one of the few surviving ninja clans from the Tokugawa Shogunate period, though they could trace their lineage backwards much further.

Evelyn took to the training with fervor and passion, learning the skills better and faster than her father could have hoped. They did teach her confidence, though she never managed to become the outgoing, vivacious, social butterfly her mother was. She had just celebrated her 19th birthday a month before Pearl Harbror's bombing. Only another week passed before the authorities came to arrest her father.

The government allowed her mother to remain at large, but Evelyn and her father were put into one of the concentration camps for Japanese citizens meant to hold them while their loyalties were "assessed." Growing angry at the unfairness and impatient with the process, Evelyn used her mystical shinobi skills to sneak out of the supposedly inescapable concentration camp. She continued to infiltrate the office of the general running the camp. When the general came in, she dropped from the ceiling, took him hostage with a letter opener, and demanded to see someone who could "satisfy her honor."

Not sure who to call when ninja girls started threatening to behead generals with office equipment, the executive officer called in the Office of Strategic Services. When the dust settled, Mr. Hishikawa returned home to his wife and Evelyn became a member of the newly created OSS Department Sigma under a codename her father said had special significance to her family: Tora no Shi, the Tiger of Death.

Since then, Evelyn has been busy in the European Theater and beyond. When secrets needed stealing with none the wiser, there was Tora. When high-ranking generals or government officials had to vanish, there was Tora. When Thule machinations had to be destroyed well behind enemy lines, there was Tora.

The Tora no Shi is a ghost, a rumor, a myth used to scare German soldiers at all levels. The ones that know she's real are more than scared...they're terrified. Department Sigma is putting together a squad that won't skulk in the shadows, a team meant for higher profile missions. Evelyn volunteered immediately. The Tiger is ready to step into the light.

Personality:

Evelyn is quiet and reserved. She used to be shy, but months of skulking about in the most dangerous areas in the world and living to tell about it have turned that shyness into a taciturn confidence.  She is the essence of economy in word and deed. Though she speaks and acts rarely, when she does, it is with decisive precision.

But Evelyn is far from humorless. She enjoys playing pranks and practical jokes that only someone with her skills in ninjitsu could perpetrate. The other operatives in Department Sigma have learned to check above their doors, under their beds, and look for their wallets when the Tiger wanders the halls with a wry smile playing on her lips.

The only subject about which Evelyn remains prickly is the way her nation treats its Japanese citizens back home. While her immediate motivation in joining Department Sigma was to save her father, she hopes in her heart that every successful mission changes the heart or mind of another American officer or official about her people.

So far, Evelyn has done her best work solo, but she's taken a keen interest in group tactics. She's looking forward to the day that she can use her skills to support a teammate. For a woman who is used to her nearest backup being hundreds of miles behind her, ready to disavow as much as help, she's even more excited about a set of people she can trust to have her back. She only hopes that, in taking her skills so far outside their usual use, she'll still bring honor to her father and her country.

Abilities and Resources:

The ancient arts of the ninja have been refined by the Hishikawa clan until they reached superhuman proportions. Added to that, Evelyn is a particularly gifted student of the art. Her reflexes are honed to a razor's edge, she is able to make herself effectively invisible, can change her features subtly to blend into any group of people, and is even able to teleport short distances (though this brings with it a telltale puff of smoke and small flash of light). These abilities seemed fueled by her ancestors in a mystical fashion even her father was unable to explain.

In addition to her inborn abilities, Evelyn is a master of the many tools of the shinobi. Though most of these weapons are hand-to-hand and ancient, in her possession they are as deadly as any gun or bomb and decidedly more subtle. These weapons also double as tools for infiltration and sabotage.

Though much of the regular military looks upon Evelyn with suspicion, and even OSS remains at arms length, Department Sigma has nothing but trust in her abilities and character. This opens up the resources of an entire shadow war and the warriors who fight it. Wherever there are covert operatives of any Allied nation, Tora no Shi is known and welcomed.

Affiliations: Solo d10, Buddy d6, Team d8

Distinctions: Heroic Ambition, Ninja Master, Fades into the Scenery

Ancestral Ninjitsu

Invisibility d10    Shapeshifting d6    Superhuman Reflexes d10    Ninja Vanish d6

SFX: Ancestral Boost - Step up or double an Ancestral Ninjitsu die for that Scene, or spend 1 PP to do both. Take your second-highest rolling die of each subsequent action or reaction as emotional or physical stress.

SFX: Memory Surge - Use your current emotional stress die as your effect die, then step up your emotional stress by +1.

Limit: Conscious Activation - While stressed out, asleep, or unconscious, shutdown Ancestral Ninjitsu. Recover Ancestral Ninjitsu when you recover that stress or wake up. If you take emotional trauma, shutdown Ancestral Ninjitsu until you recover that trauma.

Shinobi Tools

Ninja-To (Weapon) d8    Miraculous Block (Enhanced Durability) d8    Swingline d6

SFX: Shuriken - Step up or double Weapon die against a single target. Remove highest rolling die and add an additional die to your total.

SFX: Kusarigama - Add d6 and step up effect die +1 when inflicting a complication on a target.

Limit: Gear - Shutdown a Shinobi Tools power and gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. the doom pool to recover.

Specialties: Combat Expert d8, Covert Master d10, Psych Expert d8, Acrobatic Expert d8

Milestones:

For My Ancestors

1XP when you first use your Ancestral Boost SFX

3XP when you make your Japanese heritage the subject of an argument or confrontation

10XP when you either embrace your heritage completely or deny it.

Shi Kage

1XP when you first inflict stress on a foe who cannot see you.

3XP when you make yourself visible in order to assist an ally and take stress from this action.

10XP when you choose to inflict physical trauma on a foe who has inflicted stress on you and at least one ally, or you choose to redirect stress from that foe as emotional stress and allow yourself to be stressed out.