The Oslan is the crystalline, Norwegian National Hero.

Concept and Art: Joao Marques
Origin: Thom Chiaramonte

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The Oslan

Name: Erlend Monsson
Affiliation: Norwegian National hero

Attributes:

Melee: 30
Reflex: 20
Muscle: 25
Vigor: 20
Acumen: 10
Observation: 10
Will: 10

Life: 95
Influence: 30

Abilities:

The Oslan’s latent posthuman ability involves a specific form of matter manipulation: his skin secretes a microscopic crystalline dust, the crystallization of which he can accelerate at will, forming extremely strong, dense, ultra-light shapes that retain rigidity for several minutes before dissipating from exposure to oxygen. He can generate armor, as well as weapons, both ranged and melee, and some limited massing constructs, though the size of the construct inversely affects the duration of it’s structural integrity.

Physiological Enhancement: Along with the increased Attributes above, The Oslan enjoys +2CS vs. Stun/shock Saves. He also only requires food about once a week.

Crystallization Manipulation: The Oslan may form up to 150kgs of crystalline material per hour externally, or armor and weapons for himself continuously [40 IV]. It should be noted that he cannot do both. He may cease generating the material in order to form weapons and armor, and the existing material will remain, but he cannot generate further external material without ceasing to maintain his own protective form, in which case it slides apart in fragments. While it takes one round to generate his own protection and weaponry, he may perform an additional Action in the same round with the normal multi-Action penalty.The armor the Oslan creates offers 30 AP vs. physical attacks and 40 AP vs. energy attacks. Armor that is damaged in combat regenerates at a rate of 20 points per round, automatically. The Oslan’s crystal edged weapons cause 30 points of damage to inorganic compounds and 35 points of damage to organic material [40 DP]. Note: due to the molecular edge the Oslan can form on his edged weapons, if the Oslan’s attack results in a Red Cell, the victim’s physical and natural resistance to injury is ignored in that round. The Oslan’s crystal blunt weapons cause 30 points of damage and require the victim to make a Stun/ Shock Save with a -1CS penalty.

Origin:

Erlend Monsson was a popular extreme climber in his native Norway, who rose to international stardom after participating in a daring volunteer rescue effort to help trapped victims of an emergency helicopter crash along the face of the Jostedalsbreen, Northern Europe’s tallest glacier. He became a sports hero sensation, quickly becoming sponsored by a number of high profile consumer companies and sports broadcasting entities, and his event climbs were soon the subject of a digital film documentary, rocketing him to a level of wealth and status inconsistent with that of his lower-class upbringing. However, on the morning of his most ambitious event climb attempted, his young fiancée, the Italian actress and model Angelica, died from a heroin overdose. Emotionally devastated, Monsson retreated from public view, and retired.

The Norwegian government, however, had kept a close eye on Monsson during his attempted seclusion. He had been named as one of six potential candidates for Norway’s slot in the Northern European Achievement Initiative, which was helping to develop posthumans for the national hero movement started by the Americans and soon spread to Europe. While several Norwegians had been early candidates for the program, the NEAI being based in Svalbard and employing a large Norwegian technical staff, none had survived or successfully completed the program, to some embarrassment of the Norwegian government. The decision was made to pursue primarily sports and military recruits for the program going forward, the previous candidates being largely volunteers of various levels of physical aptitude, from within the ranks of the Svalbard law enforcement community. Among potentials, Monsson was the most desired candidate, and the NEAI scouts were given carte blanch to convince him to participate.

Monsson had been living a largely nocturnal lifestyle, working as a ranger in the Bøyaøyri estuary under an assumed name, and had managed to remain unrecognized for several months before NEAI agents visited him at his cabin. They pleaded for his participation in the posthuman program on patriotic grounds, reasoned with him that his physical aptitude was being wasted, appealed to his assumed desire for the fame and wealth he had once enjoyed, and even suggested his participation could lead to future public office. Monsson remained resolute in his desire to stay underground. Having exhausted all other options, the NEAI scouts offered a more enticing carrot: information about his fiancee’s murder. According to them, her suicide was assisted, by certain agents of other interests contrary to Monsson’s own sports hero celebrity. And the NEAI knew the identity of her murderer.

Unfortunately, the agents had not anticipated Monsson’s rage. One agent was forced to shoot the sports legend in the chest after he broke the other agent’s neck. Fearing the scandal if this were to become public, the deceased agent, Monsson’s wounded body, and all of his possessions were extracted by military action and the cabin burned to the ground, a cover story of a cooking accident planted in the local press. Later, isolated and detained while recovering from the near-fatal gunshot wound in a military prison hospital, Monsson was given a simple choice: work with the program, and have his crime purged from all records, and learn the identity of his fiancee’s assailant, or disappear forever in a military detainment facility as a terrorist captive. While the prospect of permanent seclusion appealed to Monsson’s self-loathing and guilt over the loss of Angelica, his desire to take vengeance upon her supposed killer was a greater need, and he reluctantly agreed to the government’s terms, and entered NEAI’s program upon his release from the hospital.

As the Oslan, Monsson’s identity wasn’t immediately known by the public. The posthuman process had changed his physiology somewhat, and the dynamic, eye-catching nature of his crystalline posthuman abilities was the focus of most of the early marketing about his entry on the European stage as the Norwegian National Hero. Eventually, his identity was discovered by the press, and his popularity only rose. But after repeated attempts to learn the identity of Angelica’s killer were met with obfuscation, he threatened to quit his role as the Oslan, and reveal the government’s culpability in her murder. Realizing they had to retain his commitment at all costs, the NEAI produced a fabricated background for a lifetime criminal who worked as an informant in Amsterdam, but had ties to Norway’s smuggling networks, for the story of Angelica’s murder itself had been a NEAI fabrication.

On a dark October evening, the Oslan, in plain clothes, paid this low-level thief and muscle a visit in his local watering hole in Amsterdam’s Red light District, and decapitated him before a shocked room full of drunken patrons, using an ultra-thin reed of crystalline material, which immediately dissapated. He was never recognized, and rumors began to spread of a ruthless posthuman criminal in the Netherlands who could murdered his victims with invisible weapons. The European posthuman National Hero community vowed to apprehend this assailant, and the Oslan was cleverly given the task of finding him. Eventually, this paradox would lead to one of Europe’s first fabricated posthuman Confrontation Combatant, as an entire identity would be developed around the non-existent Dutch Nightstalker. The Oslan’s secret would never be revealed.

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You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Universe Gallery.

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