Character Sheet
Night Phantom
Category : Comic Books
Subcategory : Marvel universe
Type : Villain
Game System : DC Heroes (Blood of Heroes S.E.)
Night Phantom v1.1
Source of Character: Iron Man v1 #014 (Marvel Comics)
Helper(s): Darci, Frank Murdock
Reasons: An obscure, early Iron Man villain who had something of a
simple, effective charm.
"And in the wake of his stride, doom and destruction follow ! I
know... I've seen him ! The Night Phantom is no mere myth, no false
legend... I've seen him and he LIVES !"
Game Stuff
Night Phantom
(As Hoyt): "I'm not interested in your pity, Stark -- or your literary criticism ! All I want to hear from your kind is that you're leaving our island alone ! Your projects and 'progress' are destroying its natural beauty and primitive charm ! It's got to stop !"
(As Hoyt): "You're both fools ! There are stranger, older forces at work here than you could suspect ! Call it voodoo, call it anything... you may regret ignoring this !"
Janice Cord: "Travis ! I warned you !" (Claws at his face) "I'll... I'll... YOUR FACE ! It can't be.... it can't ! It.... cannnnn't...."
Night Phantom: "But it can, my dear Janice ! Is it so shocking..?
Won't your mind comprehend what your eyes see, what your clawing
fingers reveal ? Weren't you prepared to see a primitive island
superstition confirmed..?! Can't you look upon a voodoo legend come to
life ..?! Are you too stunned to face the... NIGHT PHANTOM ?"
"Quite right, inspector ! As I am [radioactive], once I've peeled away completely the plastic disguise that is Travis Hoyt ! A small price to be the Night Phantom instead ! Now, let the voodoo drums sound... announcing again that the living legend stalks ! And tonight, my prey is no mere mass of mechanized junk ! Tonight, I hunt the defiler of my island's primitive innocence... tonight, Janice, I bring death to the man you've chosen over me !"
"No one stops the Night Phantom !"
Night Phantom
| Dex: 05 | Str: 12 | Bod: 12 | Motivation: Psycho |
| Int: 04 | Wil: 05 | Min: 04 | Occupation: Novelist |
| Inf: 05 | Aur: 04 | Spi: 04 | Resources {or Wealth}: 004 |
| Init: 015 | HP: 030 |
Bonuses and Limitations: Density Increase is Always On and Already Factored In
Skills: Artist (Writer): 05, Vehicles (Land): 03
Advantages: None demonstrated
Connections: None demonstrated
Drawbacks: Secret Identity, Strange Appearance, Minor Psychological Instability, SPR (Radioactive. Long-term exposure to the Phantom would be deadly without his bandages, and his footsteps, what he has touched, etc. can be picked up with a well-calibrated sensor such as a Geiger counter)
Equipment:
- GOGGLES [BODY 04, Shade: 02, Do Nothing: 04]. These and the bandage he wears under his costume apparently block his radioactivity.
- Special masks [BODY 01]. These are lifelike, but fragile plastic masks that look just like Hoyt's face used to. Apparently they are applied over a foundation of glue ; somehow they are able to completely hide the Phantom's goggles.]
- JEEP [STR 05 BODY 06, Running: 06, R#02. This Jeep was modified to be driven without any pedals. The back had special equipment to safely store Hoyt's wheelchair, as well as a small tripod and telescope [BODY 01, Telescopic vision: 04]]
- LOUDSPEAKERS [BODY 03, Super ventriloquism (Area of Effect): 12. Those loudspeakers diffuse the sound of very loud voodoo drums from the Phantom's cave. The sound is reverberated through the natural network of caves and cavities under the island, and can be heard for miles ; due to the echoes, it sounds really eerie.]
- BIG BOULDER [BODY 12. This boulder weights 13 APs, and seals the entrance of the Phantom's cave. Iron Man, at STR 11, could only move it by bracing between it and the wall, and using his full body's strength.]
Background
Real Name: Travis Hoyt
Marital Status: Unrevealed
Known Relatives: None
Group affiliation: None
Base Of Operations: A Caribbean island
Height: 5'8" Weight: 318 lbs
Eyes: Grey Hair: White, if any
Powers and Abilities
The Night Phantom is possessed of a degree of a superhuman strength that is even greater than the transistorised strength of the then- current suit of Iron Man armour, with matching durability. He could even endure some repulsor blasts without visible harm, though pouring it on with both repulsors and Hero Points could beat the Phantom back and damage him.
There are a few vague hints that the Phantom was physically denser than a normal human being, but it's far from clear.
History:
Travis Hoyt was in the 1960s a well-known, ageing novelist in an unrevealed genre ; upper class American people like Tony Stark could be expected to have read his best-known novels. Hoyt was caught in an accidental plane crash in the late 1960s and, though he survived, lost the use of his legs. Bitter over his age and handicap, he decided to retire far away. Eventually, he chose a small Caribbean Island that wasn't too touched by Western civilisation. From context it may have been near Haiti, perhaps l'Ile de la Tortue aka Tortuga Island.
As his villa was being built, Hoyt inspected the building but fell through some unfinished flooring weakened by the rainy season. He ended up in a cavern and was thrown from his wheelchair into an underground pool. The water was radioactive and possessed of strange properties - perhaps it was related to the Fountain of Youth in the Subterranea, or the atmosphere of the Netherworld of Queen Kala (also in Subterranea). Hoyt was greatly energised, the immersion even nigh- instantly repairing his crippled legs.
Hoyt continued to regularly submerge himself into the radioactive water, gradually developing enormous superhuman strength and durability. The radiation also started damaging him and burning off his skin, however, so he ended up procuring some special bandages and masks to allow him to continue to function in society. With everything on and his wheelchair, nobody would notice any change.
The Night Phantom walks !
However, Stark Industries came to the island to build a new plant. This created jobs and attracted money, but Hoyt was greatly displeased on many levels. His "primitive" retirement site was now sullied, and he had a personal problem with Stark - who was the current romantic interest of Janice Cord, the daughter of Hoyt's good friend Drexel Cord. The much older Hoyt had a clear but unrequited interest in Miss Cord. Furthermore, the extensive construction work on the Stark Industries plant was creating underground fissures, and Hoyt's pool started draining away through one of those.
Determined to stop the plant's construction so he could find a way to preserve his pool, Hoyt came up with the identity of the Night Phantom. He also set up hidden speakers under his villa, which could play voodoo drum beats that would reverberate underground throughout the whole island. Thus having an instant voodoo mystique as "the Night Phantom" (likely inspired by the classic comic strips character by Lee Falk), he attacked the plant and destroyed it, traumatising a hapless security guard.
Tony Stark came to the island -- in part to check on the damage and discover what was going on with his plant, and in part to see Janice Cord who was then visiting Hoyt. The Night Phantom soon attacked Stark and the local chief of police as they were driving back from the wreck of the Stark plant, throwing their Jeep away and kidnapping the policeman. Emboldened, he then captured Janice Cord, who discovered that his face was a mask when she tried to defend herself. Hoyt's plan was to plunge Cord into his pool so she'd be irradiated just like him, assuming that she would become like him and that they would be together.
Meanwhile, Stark had suited up as Iron Man and intercepted the Night Phantom before he could dunk Cord. Iron Man managed to repulse the Night Phantom with some difficulty, and the insane superhuman decided to jump into his underground pool to become even more powerful and be able to beat back Iron Man.
However, the floor of the cavern had grown even weaker - in large parts due to the amplified beat of the drums the Night Phantom had been broadcasting underground during his outings. When Hoyt forcefully plunged into the water it collapsed, draining the entire pool and the Night Phantom further underground.
The Night Phantom was never seen again -- though Mister Kline (aka the Assassin) once built a robot look-alike to confront Iron Man.
Description:
See illustrations. The Night Phantom is in costume at all times, he usually wears his Hoyt mask and clothing over it and pretends to be restricted to his wheelchair. Hoyt had mentioned that his skin had been severely damaged by exposure to radiation, and one would imagine that he looks pretty much like a severe burn victim under the bandages.
Personality
Hoyt is clearly deranged, though he can manage to just come across as insufferable with some effort. This seems to be a direct consequence of the cumulative exposure to the radiation - it has warped his mind and now he only lives to protect his precious underground pool and be in awe of its strange properties. In some ways his behaviour about his pool evokes that of a severe drug addict.
Hoyt seems to an aged, acrimonious, crotchety conservative who just doesn't like change, and a hardline conservationist when it comes to the island. This may be his actual personality, but this may also have been a simple front to explain why he wanted Stark Industries out of the island - a pretext. He did make some references to "hunting the defiler of my island's primitive innocence" even when his charade was over, though, so at the very least he had a romantic approach to civilisation and primitiveness.
The Phantom's dialogue was emphatic and very declarative - Hoyt being a professional writer, he probably preferred to make elaborate statements as if writing a speech rather than just blurt what was on his mind like most people.
Hoyt had a fixation on the beautiful Janice Cord, greatly resenting her attraction toward the much younger, richer and technologically proficient Stark -- all three elements that Hoyt hated. As his insanity grew he became determined to turn her into a being just like him so she would be his.
Writeup completed on the 20th of June, 2010.
