Important People, Places, and Things in Brigid’s Past
People
Mother Rebecca: Mother Superior of the Order of the Sisters of the Lamb. She had authority over selling the jewelry found with Brigid.
Sister Elizabeth: one of the Sisters of the Lamb. Music teacher, taught Brigid her first voice lessons.
‘The Amazing Prestoni’: stage magician who worked the Renaissance Faire circuit in Southern California. Taught Brigid some sleight-of-hand and mentalist tricks. Early father figure. Introduced Brigid to the RenFaire scene, where she made several friends and contacts. Marked resemblance to the old descriptions of Dworkin during the Patternfall War.
KnightStar: Superhero. Secret identity: Darryl Poindexter. Martial artist and detective, with lots of gadgets. Bonded with Crystal. Was first team leader of Tempest. Trained Brigid in the rudiments of the martial arts. Died (apparently) in an ambush but possibly survived. Studied martial arts at the Temple of the New Moon in Japan. Independently wealthy but no known source of the wealth.
Crystal: KnightStar’s bonded AI assistant. Comes from an unknown alien origin, apparently a far-ranging part of the police force of an intergalactic federation. Would bond with a ‘worthy individual’ and aid their fight for justice. Interstellar travel capability, also has teleporational abilities, advanced medical and technological facilities, defensive powers, but no offensive weapons. Can change the exterior shape but the interior stays relatively the same. Has the power to suppress superpowers within its interior. The AI computer that runs the ship is named Crystal and speaks with a female voice. Could also aid the person it was bonded to in several ways, many unknown.
FrostFire: superheroine. Secret identity: Franchesca di Vasquez. Hispanic. Powers of projecting energy blasts of extreme temperature, both heat and cold. Can also fly and create force fields, force walls, etc. Has younger sister María. Worked part-time in a garage: is very muscular and tall. Original Tempest member, left Tempest after 2½ years to concentrate on neighborhood gangs and street crime.
Skye: superheroine. Secret identity: unknown. Appearance of a 13-year old with purple hair (now with a white streak over the forehead); wears blue-purple leotards with the symbol of a gold torch and surrounding stars (the state flag of Indiana, essentially) and a gold-fringed white cape over one shoulder. Superstrong and almost invulnerable, can also fly but not very fast. Possesses a ‘trouble sense’ that allows her to locate people in trouble. Actually a 29-year old woman transformed by magic, will alternately act her true age or her apparent age, resulting in some mental problems that Brigid and others have tried to help her with. Original Tempest member, left Tempest after two years to pursue acting career.
Amp: superhero. Secret identity: unknown. Sonic powers. Entered a bright beam of light that was destroying a demon (summoned by the astral spirit of Amanda Saunders, below) and was rendered blind, but developed sonic radar to compensate. Became guardian of Amanda Saunders upon KnightStar’s death. Also a rock musician, he performed with Brigid many times: specialty is guitar. Not an original Tempest member but one of the first to be added. Killed by Doctor Shiva.
Shadowfist: superhero. Secret identity: unknown. Martial artist: world champion at age 17. Excellent swimmer: could swim 30 mph for short stretches. Went to his high school senior prom with Brigid. Killed by Doctor Shiva.
CD: superheroine. Secret identity: unknown. Able to shrink to 6″ height, fly along any surface using devices in her boots, and attack using solid disk projectors: projectors had several types of attack, including entrapping attacks and killing attacks. Original Tempest member: disappeared before attack by Doctor Shiva.
Imagination: superhero. Another original Tempest member. Mentalist; more limited in applications that Brigid but also more powerful. Had a bizarre second personality named ‘Reality’ with totally different powers: this personality was hardly ever seen. Killed by Doctor Shiva.
Hydra: superhero(s). Multiple bodies with individual and different appearances and powers but one only mind. Killed in action.
Michelle Brown: Brigid’s stage agent and closest friend. They met when Brigid was just starting her music career. Black. Very smart, perfect memory, a head for numbers: keeps primary records of her business in her head. Closet romantic, reads cheap romance novels like ‘candy’. Has a Trump sketch of Brigid for emergencies. Runs Michelle Brown & Associates, an agenting firm in Pasadena.
Rowan Kassenbaum, Rhiannon Morgan: twin daughters of Brigid. Actually the regressed and transformed Doctor Shiva and Shadow Stalker. Fostered to Jefferey and Mary Kassenbaum, Brigid’s sometime recording engineer, and Lewis and Cynthia Morgan, a businessman and fantasy writer couple living in Ireland at the time.
Amanda Saunders: foster daughter / ward of KnightStar and later Amp. Possesses considerable sorcerous ability but little formal training: requires a grimoire to know the spells and must cast them from the astral plane while in a trance. Has very similar genetic markers to Brigid.
Doctor Shiva: wanted criminal. Once respected scientist, now believes he is the avatar of the Hindu god of destruction Shiva. Attempted several schemes to destroy the world in order to recreate it. Collected a group of highly experienced and powerful individuals to support him which he called his devas: see Shadow Stalker, Mentiad. Disappeared after last attempt: see Rowan Kassenbaum, above.
Mentiad: wanted criminal (deceased). Protegé of Doctor Shiva. Most powerful psychic on the planet. Could have been the most dangerous man alive if not for his slavish devotion to Doctor Shiva. Killed by Shadow Stalker at the command of Brigid.
Shadow Stalker: wanted criminal. A deva of Doctor Shiva. Master of ninja arts of disappearances and deception and every form of martial art known. Disappeared after the last attempt at world destruction by Doctor Shiva: see Rhiannon Morgan, above.
Mechatron: wanted criminal. Robot from an alternate future, dedicated to replacing all organic life on the planet with mechanical life. Built a series of factories around the world to rebuild itself if it was ever defeated. Extremely tough, highly intelligent, vulnerable to magick. Learns from every encounter and passes the information to the next version of itself. Has a limited power of shapeshifting that allows it to create any energy weapon it chooses. Can also fly and is superstrong. Many times has a specialized horde of robots supporting its schemes. Has sometimes used duped human agents. Fought Tempest once, taking control of Crystal; nearly destroyed the team, except for Brigid’s powers of mind control.
The Swarm: alien communal entity that attempted to transform Earth into a colony of itself. Composed of many different alien races, all psychically bonded together, with no free will and no other impulse except to spread the bonding. Initial attack on Earth consisted of a psychic wave that broke down psychic barriers between humans, resulting in mass hysteria and psychosis. Brigid and several others, heroes and villains alike, were immune: they allied and later fused mentally to combat it. To ultimately defeat it Brigid used her transformational powers on it to break down the psychic bond.
Lord Arcanus: sorcerer. Heir to the powers of Merlin and Atlantis. Most powerful sorcerer on the planet, mystic protector of Britain. Perhaps the one person who came closest to determining Brigid’s source of magick: for the longest time he thought Brigid was the reincarnation of Morgan le Fey.
Organizations
Serpent: the best organized and supplied and most powerful criminal organization on the planet. Maintained bases all over the globe. Also created its own cadre of super-powered individuals. Brigid and Tempest had several encounters with Serpent. Highly technological, very little interest in magick.
Demon: organization of black magicians and demon summoners. At one time put a $1M bounty of Brigid so they could determine the source of her powers. Brigid returned the favor by impersonating a succubus and attending an meeting of criminal organizations (which Demon was not supposed to attend) supposedly on behalf of Demon: she was able to discover their intentions and to sow discord among the organizations, who believed Demon was responsible. Also uses high technology, including powered armor.
The Steel Guard: US Army Special Forces unit, wearing special powered armor suits. Highest entrance requirements of any unit, requires perfect training and service record, a college degree, two years special training, plus training in every other branch of the service. Made to survive direct hits from anti-tank rounds, suits are extremely tough and can be fitted to carry many different types of weapons (lasers, machine guns, missile racks, for instance); they can also fly and operate in space and under water to depths of 1000 ft. without special equipment. Sensory package includes radar, IR, light intensification, sonar. Eight feet of shining steel with US Army markings and personalized insignia for identification. Five 10-man squads in existence. Used as heavy protection for the President and Vice-President by the Secret Service; one member is always stationed at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Used as official US support against supercriminal organizations and individuals like Serpent and Doctor Shiva.
Things
The Champions: Saturday morning TV animated series based on a popular comic book and roleplaying game. Brigid did voices for two characters: the superheroine Silhouette and the supervillainess Shrinker. Lasted three seasons then went into reruns. Mel Blanc did many of the supervillain voices. Brigid still gets residuals from the series.
Magic and the Music, Music Makes the Magic: the titles for Brigid’s two cassette and CD releases. Profits from the recordings go to the Tempest Foundation (see below.)
The Tempest Foundation: Founded by Brigid and FrostFire after the destruction of Tempest by Doctor Shiva. Provides medical and life insurance, legal assistance, and family aid and counselling to individual superheroes and superhero teams. Brigid and Michelle serve on the Foundation’s board. It was also aided, mysteriously, by the late KnightStat’s estate: neither Brigid or Michelle could determine how or where the money or assistance came from.
National Comics, Lee Publishing, Stewart Comics, Golden Key Comics, Imagination Studios: major comic book publishers. All except for National have publishing contracts with major superheroes and superhero groups. Lee was originally going to do a Tempest book but cancelled after most of the team was murdered: Brigid was going to have a backup series in the book.
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