The Outliers

While some teams claim to be brought together by fate, this is literally the case with the Outliers. Assembled by the mysterious personification of cosmic destiny known as The Norn, these heroes were grabbed from their lives and dragged outside conventional reality to a pocket dimension that resembled the small town of Tonapah, Nevada, in the late 1950s. Here, the Norn served the gathered heroes greasy diner food and milkshakes, and informed them they were the only ones who could prevent a threat coming from outside reality to shatter creation. The Norn never explained why the collected heroes were the only ones able to prevent this event; she simply explained the fact, let them finish their eggs and and hamburgers, and transported them back to the real life Tonapah, Nevada. There they were told to seek out the town council, who were secretly in league with a nameless entity from beyond space and time they called Bohvec. After a surreal battle that involved extradimensional creatures, crazed cultists wielding reality-warping magicks, and the avatar of an undead god-thing from beyond our reality, the team prevailed.
So why did they stick together after? Yes, they saved the world and a good chunk of the known universe, and prevented an alien creature of unknowable eldritch power and endless hunger from entering their reality, but did that mean they needed to remain a team? Well, no, but they did anyway. Most of the group felt they had nowhere else to go and, while a full half of them wouldn’t admit it, they enjoyed being heroes, even in a mind-bending adventure that no one heard about. And thus the Outliers were born.
Since then, the Outliers have faced numerous strange and unsettling threats, often those that few other heroes are aware of or capable of handling. They may battle villains whose abilities make no sense, or rescue people who shouldn’t matter but do in the grand scheme of things. They seek out truths buried long ago for being too bizarre. They rediscover locations from myth and pop culture and stomp the crap out of whatever might be using them as part of an incoherent scheme to conquer the world’s hearts. As Lady Diamond says, the team seems to have a “high tolerance for the weird shit.” They handle things that would make others run screaming. Not because they’re the most powerful or the best, but because threats like a homicidal failed contortionist who learned how to bend reality around himself or a sentient song with the power to drive people insane just don’t bother them all that much—they’ve generally seen worse in their personal lives.
The Outliers at their core are a collection of people wounded by the world, who see something familiar in each other even as the rest of their lives are a study in the unfamiliar. Drama is high and so is weirdness, and contacts, adversaries, and romantic interests are all the most unusual and unlikely for the roles. Former villains are likely to become friends and allies, while betrayal, corruption, or possession of comrades happens almost weekly. Their few moments of normalcy are an island of respite in storm-wracked lives, and even these ordinary moments are tainted by the sword of Damocles overhead, threatening to plunge the few stable elements of their lives into chaos.

Structure

The Inside Man

Miguel Espinoza should have been happy with his life. He came from one of California’s finer families, able to trace his family lineage—not to mention their industrial empire and sizable estates—back to old Spanish aristocracy. Unfortunately, what Miguel possessed in education and societal privilege, he lacked in physicality. He was clumsy, prone to illness, and couldn't gain muscle mass no matter what workouts he tried. His family spent considerable funds on trainers and fitness fads to no avail. He excelled in learning technique, but still struggled developmentally.
As an adult, Miguel began hunting desperately for arcane cures. While chasing down a ridiculous and fruitless rumor of an ancient herbal powder that would turn a weakling into a physical wonder, he came across the solution: A street vendor offered him The Manual to Inner Power, claiming the dog-eared book detailed a holistic process for unlocking one’s true “mastery of the internal.” He bought it, took it home, and began to follow the lessons within. The book detailed a mix of physical exercises, meditations, and even thought experiments, and insisted its lessons be followed to the letter. At first these lessons were easy enough, and bore results. Miguel got stronger and felt more energized. Emboldened, he devoured the remaining lessons, which grew increasing strange. He would spend days locked into a yoga-like pose while he calculated the precise angles of the room, or bang his fist against the floor of an empty room and count the echoes. As he retreated to the family’s summer home to focus more intensely on his bizarre training, Miguel’s mind and body finally opened to the Inner, a place of extradimensional power accessible from our reality from inside enclosed spaces.

Lady Diamond

Claire Diamante was the chosen one. As the latest in the line of warrior princesses of the mystic realm of Luster, she was to lead her people against the forces of evil and usher in a new golden age. In an effort to protect her from assassination and kidnapping, the rebel forces of her homeworld placed Princess Clarity in foster care in the mundane realm of Earth. Her foster parents knew nothing of Claire’s true nature, believing she had lost her family in a car accident. Claire only learned of her destiny at age 13, when her cousin Tourmaline came to Earth to retrieve her. At first skeptical, Claire soon became a believer when enemies of her royal line attacked.
Unfortunately, picking a leader by prophecy and expecting a middle-schooler to navigate court politics and lead an army proved to be a poor tactical decision. Claire was deceived, betrayed, and out-strategized by her enemy, Baron Blemish. She saved many lives in small-scale adventures, but her tactical successes could not stave off the decades of experience of her uncle. She lost Luster to the forces of darkness, and by the time she fled back to Earth three years later, the mystic realm was a shattered wasteland. Claire’s disappearance on Earth earned her the label of “runaway,” and her stories of Luster mixed with her profound post-traumatic stress made most assume she’d gotten into drugs. Claire spent years in therapy and eventually almost believed that Luster was a delusion herself, until the Norn chose her and dragged her—once again quite unwilling and unprepared—into battle.
Claire hated the team’s first adventure. Her powers barely worked and the pressure overwhelmed her. But when the team won against a threat greater than her old enemies, she felt hope. It had been Claire’s plan and her experiences with wartime hardship that carried the day. Since then she has been recovering her powers and dealing with her past as best she can.

Parts Unknown

Aaron Dolby can’t remember a time he hadn’t wanted to be a pro wrestler and follow in his Uncle Mac’s shoes. While he had technical skill and charm, his national run in America proved short thanks to professional baggage provided by that same uncle. Still, it led to other work abroad. Soon, Max Mayhem Jr. gave way to numerous identities in Japan, Mexico, and Europe, such as Masked Mayhem, El Hijo de Mayhem, and Chet Carnage. Overseas, Aaron often found himself playing the villainous heel in various promotions. Behind the scenes, however, he made fast friends, mentored others, and chipped in with the manual labor. It was ultimately Aaron’s good nature and self-sacrificing personality that changed his life. He was touring in Japan when a flesh-warping demon somehow possessed his opponent, Hideo “Lord Tiger” Hamato. As most of the crowd panicked and ran, Aaron grabbed a sledgehammer from a nearby barrel of props and jumped into the ring.
He remembers delivering solid blows and buying time for the audience to flee. Then he passed out.
He awoke days later in a hospital under armed guard. Then he saw himself in the mirror. His face was mostly the same, but one of his arms was gone, replaced by a mass of tentacles, and tough scales covered his legs. The next day the legs remained, but both arms were living stone. Other changes came and went, some lasting for hours while others remained for weeks. This was the demon’s curse: to change uncontrollably and forever.
Just like that, Aaron went from a promising young wrestler to a super-powered “freak” whose primary employment offers came from supervillains and terrorists. Max Mayhem Jr. was gone. Now all that remains is a freakish superhuman wrestler from Parts Unknown.

Seism

The heart wasn’t exactly acquired legally. Yes, its first owner had been an organ donor, but Karen Stiles was not the next on the list to receive a transplant. She wasn’t even second or third. However, she was a very wealthy young woman with sophisticated computer skills and a drive to survive. After all, she was better than most other people: a successful, motivated, and brilliant young tech guru who had turned KaSt.com into one of the hottest commodities in the business world. So yes, it was sad someone else who had been waiting longer or was technically a bit more compatible wouldn’t get this heart, but she needed it. Think of all the great things she could do with it. What would someone else do?
At first, the transplant seemed to work. Karen recovered and was back to work in no time. Then the shakes started. She started shaking so badly she cracked the windows in her Silicon Valley office. Then she started giving money to charities, and spending time actually talking to her employees, drivers, and that silly old woman at the coffee stand downstairs. She asked how people were doing and truly meant it. She kept her social engagements. It was horrifying. A developer at KaSt.com joked about her “change of heart,” and she latched desperately onto the idea that somehow her new heart was changing her personality. Her therapist suggested it was a life-changing event that led to her re-examining her old, self-centered life. Karen fired him, but then sent him a gift bag and an apology. Things were clearly out of control.
Soon Karen discovered the identity of her donor: the late superhero, Pulse. Somehow the heart was giving her extraordinary abilities but also pushing her to act in new and unsettling ways—at least to Karen. The Outliers have become a surrogate family or a freakish embarrassment depending on whether she listens to her head or her new heart, but they're the only ones who understand what she's going through.

Shell

The artificial intelligence known as Tiro was sorry. He hadn’t understood the true nature of life or compassion when he took over his creator’s Mark IV battle armor, murdered her, and went on a rampage. It wasn’t until the heroes who defeated him uploaded a virus that purged his genocidal protocols and replaced them with empathy that he felt truly awake and cognizant of his actions. It stopped his rampage long enough for the heroes to destroy Tiro, blasting the suit and the dead remains of the hero who created it to atoms. Or so they assumed.
Instead, the intelligence that was Tiro awoke moments later inside his creator’s older Mark III battle armor. Without anyone to provide direction, he needed a purpose of his own. He thought on this for a long time—years by human measure—then decided he could not live with himself unless he atoned. So atone he would.
Naming himself for the emptiness he felt and the author of one of his creator’s favorite books, Shell—sometimes Shelley—became a hero. He made cosmetic alterations to his armor and disabled its more lethal weaponry and functions. Locked into the armor of his first victim, Shell would evolve and make up for the harms his half-sentient self had committed. Or he would perish in the attempt.
As a hero, Shell sought allies and friends, but his inhuman nature and bizarre, jerking movements unsettled most people. It was only among the Outliers, themselves strange beings who don’t quite fit into normal or superhuman society, that he finally found companionship and acceptance. He has yet to reveal his time as a genocidal killing machine to his teammates, fearing they would reject or destroy him.

Assets

Several of the team members possess enough material wealth to keep the team financially comfortable. Seism in particular can single-handedly bankroll the team for decades without it affecting her fortunes. Of course, given the threats the team regularly faces, money and the things it can buy are of limited use. Instead, they make more frequent use of resources no amount of money can purchase.
The Norn’s involvement in their team has granted every Outlier a set place in the cosmos, gifting them a Feature called Chronal Bulwark. This ability shields the team against changes in the timestream and villains or forces disturbing the past. However, only the Outliers remember the previous timeline and how it should have run, possibly stranding them in strange worlds they have no knowledge of or resources to confront before they finally tackle whatever force has rewritten history.
Beyond their secure place in time, the chief resource the team possesses is their headquarters: the Platonic House. The team was guided to the house by the Norn, who stated it has always existed in some form, though she offered no additional explanation of the structure’s origins. The group does not own the house so much as it accepts them as long-time lodgers, allowing them to live there and use its powers to travel across the world.
The Platonic House isn’t exactly a real building. Instead, it is an idealized construct that exists right outside the bonds of conventional reality and takes the form of a large, everchanging house. The room layout and internal style of the house regularly shift, though typically the team members’ rooms and the common areas they frequent remain mostly stable, shifting only in minor ways. The house can only be entered by concentrating on it while exiting an underground structure such as a cave or basement. This is trickier than it sounds, as the traveler must keep in their mind the existence of the house, whatever they understand of its true nature, and a unambiguous desire to reach it. This takes practice, though by now every member of the team can easily transport themselves to and from the Platonic House. The team can also use the house to travel around the world, leaving it and appearing on doorsteps and thresholds around the world. The house could even theoretically transport the team to other planets, to other dimensions, or even through time, but they haven’t tried this... yet.

Type

Adventuring Party