Babeng Linta
(Leech Lady)
Context
Babaeng Linta is another classic Golden Age Darna villainess who was updated in the 2009 series. Babaeng Linta is one of the most powerful of Darna’s enemies, and arguably the strangest and most tragic.
Babaeng Linta’s name is one of the easiest of the Darna villainesses to translate into English. ”Babaeng” is woman or lady. ”Linta” is leech. So Leech Lady, Leech Woman and Lady Leech are all possible translations. Leech Lady seems to be the one most commonly used.
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Background
- Real Name: Octavia Moran.
- Alter Ego: Lutgarda Morales.
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: None.
- Group Affiliation: Unnamed quartet of Villainesses opposing Darna.
- Base Of Operations: Mobile within the Philippines, mostly San Martin.
- Height: 5’9” Weight: 120 lbs.
- Eyes: Brown/Red Hair: Black.
- Other Distinguishing Features: When she’s low on blood, her veins protrude on her head and neck.
Powers & Abilities
Babaeng Linta was given her powers by a strange quasi mystical infusion of the abilities of a swarm of leeches. Babaeng Linta has the bizarre ability to transform her nose into a tentacle like leech’s mouth to suck blood. From this nose stems the majority of her powers.
She can steal vitality from her victims by drinking their blood. She can also steal powers and her victim’s appearance by tasting their blood. She was also able to tap into the magical energies of the stone which gives Darna her powers.
Babaeng Linta was able to drain the powers from the stone, and give the powers to her compatriots in the villainous quartet focused on taking down Darna.
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Other powers
Additionally, she can transform her body into a swarm of leeches when she experiences trauma that would normally kill her. At will, she can produce leeches (usually from her mouth) which she can attach to a person to extend her control of the small creatures to anyone it is attached to.
After an extended time of control, weak willed victims’ personalities become warped enough to become willing henchmen, especially if they already had an attachment to her in her guise as a famous actress, and a predisposition towards being a flunky.
Just as she gains the strengths of a leech, so does she have their vulnerability. While she is practically immortal under most circumstances, she is as vulnerable to being covered in large amounts of salt as any snail or leech.
Much like a vampire, she grows weaker when she cannot get fresh blood, slowly her ability to maintain her beauty and cover her identity will slip as her hunger grows.
History
The Origin Story
Babaeng Linta has a particularly tragic and disturbing origin story. In the 1940s, Octavia Moran was a famous actress renowned for her talent and beauty. Unfortunately, she was abducted, gang raped, and left for dead in a swamp. Dozens of leeches attached themselves to her body to feed at the same time a mysterious storm brewed.
Lightning hit the swamp, electrifying both her and the leeches. Somehow, this freak atmospheric occurrence unified Octavia with the leeches attached to her. She gained the abilities of the leeches, as well as other abilities derived from the blood of her victims.
Octavia used these newfound abilities to wreak vengeance upon the men that raped her. One by one, she hunted them down and killed them. Only one man escaped her wrath, Adolfo Sandejas.
Villainess Team up!
She soon teamed up with other villainesses pitted against the heroine Darna. They went on a rampage, nearly defeating Darna by catching her in her mortal form (presumably named Narda) before she could transform. Narda was forced to reveal the secret of how she became Darna, swallowing the stone in front of them.
Darna managed to freeze them all in a block of ice in the ocean that would contain them for nearly 6 decades.
In 2009, a tsunami washed four of the villainesses in ice ashore. They were taken by scientists under the leadership of Dr. Morgan. He wanted to study them and determine if there was something in their DNA that could give powers to normal people.
The inevitable return
The scientists were surprised to find the women were still alive. The villainesses soon thawed out and escaped.
The villainesses began their rampage anew, killing several villagers. They called out Darna, but found the Darna they knew was now just a spirit holding the stone until a new host could take on the role. Threatening to destroy the town and everyone in it, they forced the Keeper of the Stone to give it to them.
Stealing its power with the help of Lady Leech’s abilities, they each gained one of Darna’s primary powers. However, the spirit of Darna contained within the stone opened a dimensional portal and temporarily banished them into a limbo dimension. They would each be freed one by one in an indeterminate amount of time.
Babaeng Linta Freed!
Linta emerged from her portal to appear next to a small lake, weak and hungry. Hearing some teenage girls swimming in the lake nearby, she ambushed them one by one and drank their blood, restoring her strength, youth, and beauty.
Assuming the identity of Lutgarda Morales, she once again established a career as an actress/model. She became an instant success. Her talent and beauty brought her popularity to a fervor in an extraordinarily short time. Soon, her busy filming schedule brought her to a project being shot in the small town of San Martin.
The townspeople fawned over the superstar in their midst. The local papers clamored for interviews, the local townspeople gathered for autographs everywhere she might be found. The mayor honored her with a ceremony welcoming her to the city; and even Ding, Darna’s apparent favorite sidekick, developed a boyhood crush on the starlet.
People were so enamored with her, that no one seemed to notice that young women started to turn up dead, with their blood drained, about the time she arrived in town.
Darna and Lutgarda Meet!
Darna grew suspicious that Babaeng Linta was operating in the area due to the young women turning up dead, combined with the fact that she was the only member of the quartet who had not appeared yet.
Patrolling the city at night, Darna heard a scream of one of Linta’s victims. Arriving in the area to find Lutgarda holding yet another dead girl, Lutgarda convinced Darna that Babaeng Linta had been about to attack her when Darna’s timely arrival scared her away.
After Darna searched the area, she returned to check on Lutgarda. While comforting the starlet, Linta inhaled Darna’s scent, savoring it. Just as she was preparing to ambush Darna, the police arrived. Wishing to maintain her secrets, Lutgarda stayed her attack and praised Darna publicly.
In interviews, she commented how safe she felt with Darna around, all the while plotting to steal Darna’s life and powers.
Babaeng Linta Exposed!
Soon, a surprisingly competent police officer, Pancho Macaspac, encountered Lutgarda on the set and came to her home. To her surprise, he looked like Adolfo Sandejas, the rapist that escaped her. He began to question her about the deaths, having pieced together a trail of young women who had been murdered in the vicinity of every shooting location where Lutgarda had filmed.
Meanwhile, Lutgarda questioned Pancho about his grandfather, asking him if he was related to Adolfo.
Unobserved by Pancho, Linta extended her nose to smell him and determined his blood was the same as her attacker. Enraged at his questions and his apparent relation to her rapist, she transformed into Babaeng Linta and attacked. Grabbing him with one of her tentacles, she explained to him how she came to be. She then told him that Adolfo Sandejas was the one rapist who escaped.
Convinced that Pancho was his descendent, she proclaimed that she would exact her revenge on him.
Babaeng Linta vs Darna!
Luckily for Pancho, Darna was still suspicious of Lutgarda and arrived to question her at that very moment. She threw Linta, only to have her quickly move behind Darna for an attack, surprising Darna.
Since Darna had already recovered her super-speed from Babaeng Lawin, this move shocked her. Linta revealed that when she stole the powers from the stone and gave them out to her comrades, she kept a portion of each for herself and thus had Darna’s main powers in addition to her own. She now wanted to drain Darna in a bid to gain eternal youth and beauty.
The two battled fiercely. Babeng Linta flew into the air where Darna pursued. Eventually, Darna gained the upper hand and knocked Babaeng Linta to the ground, defeating her. Babaeng Linta then split into a swarm of leeches allowing her to escape into a river.
Babaeng Linta’s Rampage
Encountering even more leeches in the river, Linta shared blood with them and drew on the blood they had already consumed, restoring her power. The following morning she returned to the movie set as Babaeng Linta, on a killing spree since they now knew their star was a monster.
She encountered her previous assistant, whom she spat more leeches on to turn him into her henchman. The police soon arrived and fired upon her with no effect. Of course, Darna arrived and confronted the villainess. Using a large pipe and her super breath, Darna sucked Linta’s nose into the pipe and knocked her back.
Rejoining the fight, Linta spewed hundreds of leeches onto Darna, taking control of her. With Darna under her power, she latched her proboscis-like nose onto Darna and started sucking her power. However, it was too much for her to contain. She exploded into her swarm of leeches, apparently killed.
Babaeng Linta’s new face
Coalescing later that night, Linta came across Aleli, a young woman who worked at the same Hospicio as Narda. This is where Ding, Darna’s biggest fan/sidekick, also lived. She drank Aleli’s blood, and came upon a new plot.
She had given Narda and Ding a ride home one night as Lutgarda, and noticed her smell was very similar to Darna’s. It occurred to Lutgarda now that Darna must have another identity, and it seemed that Narda was Darna’s mortal form. The fact that Narda was lame and needed a crutch had prevented her from making the connection before.
Imprisoning Aleli, she drained just enough blood to be able to take her form. She went to the Hospicio in her guise. Waiting for Narda to sleep, she sniffed around until she found the stone in its place as a hidden necklace. It flashed and surged with power, preventing Babaeng Linta from taking it.
Plotting anew
So, she bided her time. She returned to Aleli the following night, draining enough blood to maintain her disguise and returned to the Hospicio. She continued to look for a chance to steal the stone, but seemed to be thwarted by the presence of the mischievous Ding every time she got close.
She also discovered that Pancho was courting Narda.
Babaeng Linta absorbing power.
Linta sent her leeches to search for the stone while Narda was showering. As she was getting out of the shower, Narda slipped on the leeches, hitting her head and knocking her out. Babaeng Linta, again unable to find the stone, instead sampled Narda’s blood through her leeches and took her appearance.
She then went on a date with Pancho to get him alone and take vengeance for his ancestor’s crimes. Unfortunately for Babaeng Linta, she hesitated to strike due to his gentlemanly nature, and the respect he was showing her. Then he lit a cigarette, causing her disguise to begin to break down.
Leaving before her disguise dropped, she returned to the Hospicio, sending a leech for more of Narda’s blood. Meanwhile, Pancho stumbled across the imprisoned Aleli and rescued her. Still seeking the stone, Linta ended up in a face to face confrontation with Narda and Ding holding the stone between them.
Forcefully taking the stone from Ding, she revealed herself and began to drain the stone. But the clever Ding had replaced the stone with a piece of candy.
Babaeng Linta’s Last Stand
The ladies of the orphanage came to investigate the commotion, to see two Nardas. Babaeng Linta assumed her natural form and spewed forth thousands of leeches to chase the women and children of the Hospicio. Narda managed to get away in the commotion and transformed into Darna.
Once again the two fought, but this time Darna dropped Linta into a concrete foundation with exposed rebarb piercing her body. As she transformed into the swarm of leeches, Darna dropped a cart full of salt on her, seemingly destroying her once and for all.
Description
Octavia/Lutgarda is a stunning actress. Tall and thin, she has the body of a mixed Asian model. As Babaeng Linta, she is covered with red scaly flesh and has a long tentacle like nose, as well as additional tentacles that extend from her upper arms which can act independently of her human arms.
She also has protruding veins around her neck and head which become particularly apparent the hungrier she gets.
Personality
Octavia Moran was a starlet with everything she wanted in life. She had fame, fortune and the attention of anyone she wanted. She was your typical starlet who was mildly self-absorbed, and enjoyed the attention her career gave her.
After her transformation into Babaeng Linta, she became incredibly vengeful. She was obsessed with killing the men who had raped her and left her for dead. Anger became her definitive trait and she focused her fury on any who stood in the way of her vengeance, especially Darna.
Once freeing herself from the limbo stated, she craved the fame and attention of her old life and tried to satisfy herself with becoming a famous actress and starlet again. But she had been transformed by her powers and her hunger grew. She had to keep drinking the blood of young women to keep her appearance up.
Also as a result of her transformation or perhaps due to her raw ambition, whenever she has been faced with a powerful being, she craved that power for her own and began to hunger for their power much as she hungers for blood.
Quotes
“I want to sip her power.”
“Why pack up ? The star is already here ! I’m ready for my close-up !”
“You are unbelievably good Darna. I admire you. Even my leeches are your fans. In fact, I want to have your autograph.” (spews hundreds of leeches onto Darna)
DC Universe History
The swamp Babaeng Linta was created in could easily be tied to Solomon Grundy’s swamp or a Lazarus pit. The freakish storm could be part of Earth’s elemental forces taking pity on her.
It’s possible she’s a failed elemental of The Red in a similar fashion to Grundy being a failed elemental of The Green. It would be interesting to see how she would interact with Animal Man.
Considering they both started in the film industry with Buddy being a stuntman and Octavia being an actress, they might even meet on set. If their first interaction with their costumed identities was encountering men who were about to physically assault women, they might even find themselves as allies.
Buddy might even convince Linta she could be a hero, but over time her hunger would grow and her jealousy over Buddy’s connection with The Red might begin to consume her… especially if she accidentally got a little taste.
Marvel Universe History
In the Marvel Universe, Linta would almost certainly have encountered Wonder Man and the West Coast Avengers at some point. With a sip of his power, she could quickly become an adversary for the whole team, using their own strengths against them.
Another thought with Babaeng Linta in the Marvel Universe is that she could prey on unsuspecting mutants. If she somehow got a sip of power from someone who could detect mutants (or perhaps figured out how to smell them out with her powerful sense of smell), she might even be able to start draining mutants’ powers before they even manifested.
Of course this would quickly bring her into conflict with one of the various “X” teams or the Brotherhood.
Whatever Universe History
As with many Mars Ravelo creations, she could be dropped into just about any universe completely as is. South East Asia is sparsely populated in most super hero universes and the Ravelo creations like Darna and her enemies could be used to help fill that void.
As Lutgarda Morales, she could easily be used as a love interest for one of the player characters. With her star power, she could find herself anywhere in the world and appear to be the perfect damsel in distress… until she’s ready to spring her trap and sip the power of the hero or heroes.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Babaeng Linta (Leech Lady)
| Dex: 08 | Str: 06 | Bod: 08 | Motivation: Power Lust |
| Int: 05 | Wil: 05 | Min: 04 | Occupation: Actress/Model/Villainess |
| Inf: 07 | Aur: 07 | Spi: 05 | Resources {or Wealth}: 008 |
| Init: 012 | HP: 080 |
Powers:
Power Drain: 15, Vampirism: 15, Mimic: 15, Analytical Smell and Taste/Tracking Scent: 09, Stretching: 02, Speak with Animals: 02, Animal Control: 08, Animal Summoning: 08, Chameleon: 10, Fluid Form: 08, Extra Limb (x2): 06, Invulnerability: 13, Damage Transference: 03
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Power Drain and Mimic are contingent on Vampirism and are all elementally linked. They also work on Artifacts.
- Vampirism has a range of 0 APs (the length Babaeng Impakta can stretch her nose) and has no AV.
- Stretching applies to her tentacle like extra limbs only (and her nose up to a range of 0 APs).
- All animal-related powers are limited to leeches only.
- Fluid Form represents her ability transform into a swarm of leeches and does not allow her to become actual liquid, and she is unable to attack in this form.
- Damage Transference can heal entry wounds her leech nose makes, even upon victims that have been killed, which allows her to cover her tracks.
- Chameleon only allows her to take the form of people she or her leeches have used Vampirism on, or her original appearance.
- Use of Invulnerability automatically triggers Babaeng Linta’s Fluid Form as she scatters into a swarm of leeches, who flee and coalesce elsewhere.
- Mimic can only be used to mimic powers she has Drained and she has access to these abilities until she has to make use of Invulnerability; at which point she must start gathering powers all over again. This is mainly to explain her being able to mimic Darna’s powers even though she used the Power Drain to give them to her compatriots instead and/or after Power Drain would normally fade(see Ang Bato! The Stone below).
Skills:
Artist (Actor): 07, Thief (Stealth): 05, Vehicles (Land): 04, Accuracy (Spitting Leeches): 07, Occult (Knowledge, Ritual): 04
Advantages
Language (Tagalog — native, English), Attractive, Popularity (in secret ID).
Connections:
Babaeng Impakta (High), Babaeng Tuod (High), Babaeng Lawin (High), Entertainment Industry (High).
Drawbacks:
Creepy Appearance, Gradual Loss Vulnerability (All Physical Attributes and Chameleon, lack of using Vampirism every 24 hours (15 APs of time)), Secret ID, Fatal Vulnerability (Being covered in salt, 0 Aps range), Misc (No need to be greedy- see below), Power Loss Vulnerability (Fire, 0 APs Range, Chameleon), MIA (Destroying the men who raped her).
Genre:
Mock Real.
Leech Lady’s Collaborators
Leech Lady actually got her powers from leeches. She still seems to carry an untold number of her unusual benefactors around with her, in addition to her ability to transform into them.
With these pets, she can control the minds of others. Long term exposure allows her to warp those with a predisposition towards her service into loyal psychopathic henchmen.
She can spit the leeches at a range of 1 AP (20 ft.).
| Dex: 01 | Str: 01 | Bod: 01 | Motivation: Blood |
| Int: 04 | Wil: 03 | Min: 04 | Occupation: Bloodsucker |
| Inf: 06 | Aur: 07 | Spi: 06 | Resources {or Wealth}: 000 |
| Init: 012 | HP: 050 |
Powers:
Vampirism: 03, Control: 06, Hypnosis: 06
Ang Bato! (The Stone)
Babaeng Linta was able to drain Darna’s stone and give those powers to her comrades. She was also able to copy those powers herself.
This essentially robbed the stone (and Darna) of those abilities until Darna was able to defeat each opponent to recover the power they individually held. Linta, however, could still access all the powers until she was defeated.
This could be considered a rather involved Power Complication subplot. If you presume this is a standard part of Babaeng Linta’s abilities, her Power Drain is Usable on Others but this portion of the power is considered Catastrophically Marginal and Permanent (at least until the hero defeats the person holding their powers).
This makes it necessary for her to spend a relatively large number of HP to start this sort of subplot, despite her Power Drain abilities.
It might not have been possible to permanently steal the powers if she had drained Darna instead of draining the source of her power (the stone). Linta’s powers are likely magical in nature, and she was able to use the stone in ways it wasn’t meant to be used.
So I included a few APs of Occultist based on the fact she had to manipulate the magical energies of the stone and to allow her to adapt her own powers to exploit this.
Her Mimic allows her to continue to use these powers after the others are defeated. Darna has Superspeed 10, Skin Armor 05, and Flight 08 as powers the others held and are Mimicked by Babaeng Linta.
However, once she was “killed” by Darna the first time, she lost access to these abilities. So she may not Mimic any ability drained before the last time she had to use Invulnerability to recover.
No Need to be Greedy
Another plot device of the show was that when Babaeng Linta tried to Drain all of Darna’s power and strength directly, the power was too much for Linta. She exploded into her swarm, apparently defeated.
If Linta botches a Drain Roll, she takes damage with the AV/EV to the APs of power she had active.
If you prefer this to be more than an occasional plot device, for every AP she increases her Drain (or OV/EV) through spending, the number that will potentially botch increases by one, much like the reliability number for a gadget.
Source of Character: Such Darna 2009 GMA TV series, character portrayed by Maggie Wilson. Babaeng Linta’s main story arc is covered in episodes 42-47 of the series.
Helper(s): The Darna wiki, viki.com, Darci.
Writeup updated on the 25th of May, 2014.