Legendary Marie Laveau
To the world at large Marie Laveau is Queen of the Bayou and vodun priestess to all of New Orleans. Believed to be the latest in a long line of magic women whose lineage stretches back into the mists of time, even in an age of scepticism and science, her powers defy understanding or explanation. This is all for show. Marie Laveau is an invention, a glamour used to cloud the eyes of man from the true horror that crawls across the land behind beguiling magics. In truth, the woman known as Marie Laveau has no name that mortal tongues can pronounce. She is a monster, a grotesque aberration. She remembers the fall of Atlantis and the Watcher war that stranded the aliens of the clades on Earth. She has dwelled in the Louisiana bayous for as long as they have been and they are her fiefdom.
As part of the Dark Council, Marie Laveau is invigorated by the power of the Hex and is the oldest servant of the Stygian Fragment of the Hex in the Americas and this boosts the potency of her own innate powers. While abroad Marie Laveau dons her glamour to bewitch and beguile the men and women she has dealings with. None can see past her deception as her magic is strong though there are those of sufficient wit or power that may see not the shadow of a beautiful woman thrown out by fire or moonlight but the writhing tentacles of her true form. In recent years Marie has had dealings with the Confederate Rebellion, aiding them when their goals have aligned. Though the rebels do not appreciate her true nature or form.
In battle Marie appears far stronger than the average woman, hitting harder than her slight frame suggests and crossing even the most treacherous ground with ease. Combined with her magics she is a formidable foe but should even this not be enough for her to prevail she will throw off her glamour and bring her full power to bear. Once revealed and free from the drain on her concentration maintaining her falsehood requires, Marie is a beast. Larger and stronger than any man she clambers over obstacles on her six tentacles, wrapping her enemies in their embrace and crushing the life from their bodies or hurling them into the air. Supported by her coven of witch doctors, men and women who she has versed in the bayou’s dark arts, she spits curses in some unknowable tongue that withers men to dust where they stand or sees them consumed by vermin that seemingly crawl from thin air to engulf them.
K9 Gun Dogs
Created as guard dogs and sentries during the early days of Payson’s growth from small town to impregnable fortress city, the K9 automata are unusual in that they were and still are entirely mechanical. As the Enlightened moved towards using more esoteric materials in their inventions the K9 has remained as one of their few creations that have not been in some part made partly of living tissue. This is a testament to its reliability.
Though the secrets of their manufacture were eventually given over to the Union by the defector Nikolai Tesla the Enlightened were unwilling to allow a rival to have access to superior technology so created a new K9 model, the H311, colloquially known as ‘the gun dog’. Built to serve as guardians to the heavily fortified Promethean Complexes this up armoured and more heavily armed version of the K9 sacrifices speed for armour and boasts a Gatling gun as well as the standard issue steel jaws. A pack of these beasts is more than a match for even a hardened unit of men with the weight of fire they can lay down. The gun dog also benefits for more advanced cranial engines enhanced with predictive modules that are programmed to mimic aggressive animal behaviour patterns whilst allowing for intuitive target requisition.
Despite Union embargoes the Enlightened sell copious quantities of K9 units on the black market so that it is not only the Union army or sanctioned Lawmen that are accompanied by a pack of these metal mutts. Outlaws, Hex Cultists, even farmers or barkeeps can buy a new best friend if they can afford it. Failing that they can steal them as only the most expensive models have voice recognition keyed to one owner meaning a hard reset in a workshop is usually enough for a change of ownership.
K9 Attack Dogs
Although very early experiments with mechanical companions can be traced back to the clockwork fox created to amuse Prussian nobility through to the steam powered bulldogs who once upon a time accompanied Crown constabulary about their duties, it was the Enlightened who perfected the robotic dog by merging their own mechanical mastery with a refined RJ-1027 power source.
Created as guard dogs and sentries during the early days of Payson’s growth from small town to impregnable fortress city, the K9 automata are unusual in that they were and still are entirely mechanical. As the Enlightened moved towards using more esoteric materials in their inventions the K9 has remained as one of their few creations that have not been in some part made partly of living tissue. This is a testament to its reliability.
When Nikolai Tesla defected to the Union the K9 was one of the few inventions he deemed suitable for dissemination amongst the Union military and formed part of the price of his freedom. Working with Union scientists and engineers Tesla perfected and improved the K9 creating the CCLE model. This machine was an improvement on the capabilities of its Enlightened forbear and capable of being mass produced by factories granted licences by the federal government on the understanding that the majority of their production is made available to the Union army but with a modest percentage being permitted for sale on the open market.
The K9 Attack Dog is fast and strong, able to traverse uneven terrain at speed and knock down a fully grown man. It is controlled with simple voice commands that are pre-programmed factory settings though unscrupulous engineers have been known to hack and reprogram K9’s with custom behavioural routines. K9 Attack Dogs are armed with pneumatic steel jaws that can close with more force than a bear trap. This is more than capable of severing a limb though a specific command is required to switch to this more powerful setting.
Though primarily used by the Union army and sanctioned Lawmen, K9 units have found their way into the hands of less desirable owners. The controls on sales to the general public are such that your run of the mill outlaw is unlikely to be able to either afford the asking price or pass the requirements of ownership such as no previous convictions. This being the case most K9s owned by Outlaws are either stolen or black market knock-offs. Regardless of where they came from they are just as dangerous.