The Peregrine
Created by Barry Reese, Copyright Pro Se Productions
Prowess 5
Coordination 5
Strength 5
Intellect 5
Awareness 6
Willpower 6
Stamina 11
Powers
*Telekinesis 4
*Telepathy 4
*Precognition 6 (Limit: Uncontrolled)
*Modified Pistols 5 (Extra: Burst)
*Protective Suit – Damage Resistance 5
*Knife of Elohim – Strike 4 (Extra: Against enemies that are of a supernatural origin, it does Strike 6; Extra: Glows in the presence of evil)
*Gadgets 4
Specialties
Athletics, Business (Expert +2 bonus), Drive, Investigation (Expert +2 bonus), Leadership, Martial Arts (Expert +2 bonus), Medicine – First Aid, Occult (Expert +2 bonus), Pilot, Sleight of Hand (Expert +2 bonus), Stealth, Weapons (Expert +2 bonus), Wrestling
Qualities
*Way older than he looks
*Where the good is swallowed by the dark, there the Peregrine plants his mark!
*This reminds me of when I fought so-and-so back in the old days…
Background
The Peregrine is actually Max Davies, born in the year 1900. Max was the only child of Warren and Margaret Davies, two of Boston’s most prominent citizens. Margaret was the heiress to a vast fortune while Warren had earned every cent of his own money, founding a publishing company that now included three newspapers, two magazines and even a line of encyclopedias. When Warren and Margaret had met by chance at a charity function, it had been love at first sight. They’d courted for just over six months before Warren proposed to her. Max had been born two years into their marriage, a healthy baby boy who had charmed all who knew him. His ever-present smile had brightened the spirits of his parents, who genuinely considered themselves the luckiest people alive. But there were dangers lurking on the periphery of their happy lives. Warren had become increasingly disturbed at the graft and corruption surrounding them. Taking the editorial reigns of one of his newspapers, he’d launched a blistering series of articles detailing the problems facing the city and the manner in which elected officials had sold themselves to the mob. Death threats and harassment did not deter Warren Davies from his pursuit of the truth and his wife adored him all the more for it.
Their enemies he had made finally tired of the game, however, hiring a gang led by a cold-blooded killer named Ted Grossett to deal with the crusading Davies. Grossett eventually gunned down Warren Davies, murdering him in front of his 8-year old son, Max. After the death of his father, Max watched helplessly as his mother slowly began to waste away, heartbroken. Max fell into the care of a kindly but emotionally distant uncle, who was unaware that Max had begun to experience painful visions of the future, usually revolving around crimes yet to occur. Max eventually began taking steps to try and prevent these crimes, hoping to prevent others from suffering as his family had.
Realizing that he had to better himself, Max had taken off as soon as he’d turned eighteen. He’d spent time in Kyoto, in Tibet and in France, amongst a dozen other places. He’d become a master in various sciences and in the killing arts… and the painful visions had kept coming. For a time he studied under a Sensei who also called himself the Warlike Manchu. When it became clear that Manchu wanted Max to become heir to his criminal empire, Max fled, earning his master’s hatred.
Max later fashioned the Peregrine identity to keep his friends and lovers safe from harm. Let the denizens of the dark fear the masked vigilante known as the Peregrine, allowing Max to have some semblance of a normal life.
After years of travel, Max returned to the United States and became a member of the Nova Alliance, an adventurer’s guild based out of Boston. The Peregrine became a prominent figure in the city, reports of his nocturnal exploits dominating the headlines. But Max had become sloppy in protecting his identity and whispers became to circulate that the son of Warren Davies might be more than he appeared to be. When the Peregrine had made an appearance at a New Year’s Eve bash in Max’s own penthouse, police commissioner Croft had seen enough – he wanted answers.
Max evaded the questions as best he could and took off to Colorado, where he was once again prompted by painful visions to take action against a local killer. Max fled one more time, this time settling in an old plantation house outside Atlanta… and the sense that his world was slowly crumbling began to overwhelm him. In Atlanta, a reckless Peregrine fell in love with B-movie and stage actress Evelyn Gould and became embroiled in an affair known as Lucifer’s Cage. During this, he learned that the painful visions of the future came from an outside source: his dead father, who had sought to mold his son into a force against evil. Angry with his father, Max nevertheless came to an uneasy true with him and began experimenting with other mental powers he possessed: telekinesis, telepathy and more. All are difficult to use but are available to him if necessary.
Max and Evelyn married and she began to sometimes accompany him on missions They eventually had two children: a boy named William (named after his close friend, police chief Will McKenzie), and a daughter named Emma.
Beginning in the late 1940s, Max led a team called The Claws of the Peregrine. He often worked in a supervisory capacity, leaving the team to operate independently. The core membership consisted of Catalyst (Nathaniel Caine), Esper, the Revenant, and Frankenstein’s Monster, though other heroes drifted in and out of the group.
Max adventured as the Peregrine into the late 1960s when William took over the role. Unfortunately, William began a descent into drugs and depression that ended with his suicide. Emma adopted the Peregrine persona in the Seventies but retired from the role in the mid-1980s, at which point Max resumed his nocturnal activities. In 2009, Max passed the mask on to a man named Ian Morris shortly before he died. Morris carried on the legacy until 2012 when he sacrificed himself to prevent the apocalypse — during this process, Max was reborn as a man in his mid-Twenties. As of 2022, Max operates as the Peregrine once more, pretending to be his own great-grandson.
This physical description of Max comes from Lucifer’s Cage: “He was a handsome man, with a slightly olive complexion and dark green eyes. He was trim, with a swimmer’s athletic build, and seemed exceptionally poised and collected” Unlike in his younger days, the Peregrine nows wears a form-fitting uniform based on the one that Ian Morris used.
Barry Reese - Writer of Badass heroes 