Cagliostro Non-Villain Antagonist
Real Name: Giuseppe Balsamo.
Occupation: Adventurer, sorcerer, occultist, alchemist, high society socialite.
Identity: Cagliostro's existence in the 18th Century is a matter of public record; however, the general public is unaware of his continued existence.
Legal Status: Citizen of Sicily (now part of the Republic of Italy) with a criminal record in France and the Papal State of Rome, legally deceased; has legal documents proclaiming him a citizen of the United States with no criminal record.
Other Aliases: Joseph Balsamo; Guiseppe Cagliostro; Joseph Cagliostro; Count Alessandro di Cagliostro; Christophe Dominick Duminy de Glapion.
Place of Birth: Albergheria, Palermo, Sicily.
Marital Status: Widower.
Known Relatives: Lorenza Seraphina Feliciani (alias Serafina Cagliostro, first wife, deceased); Pietro (father, deceased); Felicità (mother, deceased); Giuseppe Bracconeri (maternal grandfather, deceased); Maria Bracconeri (maternal grandmother, deceased); Matteo Martello (great-grandfather, deceased); Vincenza Cagliostro (maternal great-aunt, deceased); Giuseppe Cagliostro (maternal great-uncle by marriage, deceased); Matteo Bracconeri (maternal uncle, deceased); Antonia Bracconeri (maternal aunt, deceased); Antonino Balsamo (paternal grandfather, deceased); unnamed sister (deceased); Marie Laveau (common-law second wife, separated); Marie Eucharist Eloise Laveau (daughter, deceased); Marie Philomene Glapion (alias Marie Laveau II, daughter, allegedly deceased); unnamed children and descendants (mostly deceased; may still have living descendants).
Group Affiliation: Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God (expelled); Freemasons; mentor to Marie Laveau.
Base of Operations: Mobile; maintains residences under his birth name in numerous cities across the world.
First Post-Reboot Appearance: DOCTOR STRANGE: SORCERER SUPREME #
History: The sorcerer known as Cagliostro was born Giuseppe Balsamo in 18th Century Sicily to a Jewish family. Despite his family's financial hardships – his grandfather had declared bankruptcy around the time of Giuseppe's birth – Giuseppe was given a solid education with a number of tutors. At least one of these tutors was a magician from the East who discovered that Giuseppe possessed a natural talent for sorcery (it's implied but not confirmed that the magician was the sorcerer Yao, later known as the Ancient One).
Upon reaching adulthood, Giuseppe traveled to Rome, where he met and married his wife, Serafina. Around this same time he began portraying himself as a member of the nobility, using a number of aliases; he eventually settled upon calling himself Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, gaining a reputation as an alchemist and magician throughout Europe, notably Spain, France, Italy, and Russia. At some point he gained access to a copy of the Darkhold, the foremost book of black magic (though not the parchments inscribed by the book's author, the Elder God Chthon, themselves, which were at the time stored in a vault at the Vatican), most notably pages pertaining to various alchemical practices.
Cagliostro was in Paris prior to the American Revolution when he first encountered the vampire lord Dracula, which led to their mutual enmity. Cagliostro attempted to obtain Dracula's blood to use as an ingredient in a longevity elixir learned from the Darkhold; in retaliation, Dracula turned Serafina into a vampire. Despite this, Cagliostro and Serafina lived and loved each other for another decade. He was later implicated in the 1784-85 "Affair of the Diamond Necklace" as one of those who had forged Queen Marie Antoinette's signatures and imprisoned for several months, although no evidence was ever presented. As Dracula was also in Paris at the time, Cagliostro suspected Dracula's involvement in the accusation, but could not prove it. While imprisoned in the Bastille, vampire hunters pursuing Dracula were forced to stake Serafina.
History reports that Cagliostro was arrested and imprisoned in Rome by the Inquisition in 1789 and died in prison in 1795. However, Cagliostro had anticipated such a move and had created a magical duplicate to take his place. Instead, Cagliostro traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, then under Spanish rule, and traveled around the French and Spanish American Colonies and fledgling United States for decades. In the 1820s, once again in New Orleans, under the alias Christophe Dominick Duminy de Glapion, supposedly a descendant of minor French nobility, he became the mentor and lover of Marie Laveau, teaching her many magical practices which she later combined with native voodoo practices as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Among the alchemical practices he taught her was the longevity elixir brewed with vampire blood, although there is evidence the elixir he taught her was not the same one he used himself, but a flawed copy.
More recently Cagliostro, again using his birth name of Giuseppe Balsamo, again clashed with Dracula, this time in a four-way confrontation between himself, his old student Marie Laveau, Dracula, and the current Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange, who was attempting to prevent Dracula from obtaining a copy of the Darkhold. (Ironically the copy of the Darkhold was said to be the very copy Cagliostro previously owned, which was in Laveau's possession.) The two sorcerers parted on respectful terms, though Cagliostro and Laveau did not.
Cagliostro reportedly learned the secrets of time travel from a future time traveling sorcerer, Sise-Neg, who briefly impersonated Cagliostro in France. Cagliostro used Sise-Neg's notes on time travel to pen The Book of Cagliostro: A Study of Time, the definitive treatise on temporal magic.
However, this publication history presents several unsolved contradictions, including the timeline of the Book's composition, and the exact causal sequence of Sise-Neg's and Cagliostro's mutually derivative discoveries. If Sise-Neg initially learned the secrets of time travel from The Book of Cagliostro, he may have intentionally left his notes for Cagliostro to plagiarize, in order to prevent a paradox. The Book of Cagliostro's origins remain one of magic's most notable chicken-or-egg questions.
Age: 268.
Height: 5' 11".
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Brown.
Hair: Black.
Uniform: None.
Strength Level: Cagliostro possesses the normal human strength of a man in his prime who engages in moderate regular exercise.
Known Superhuman Powers: Cagliostro is a talented sorcerer and alchemist with close to three hundred years of experience. As a sorcerer, Cagliostro has the ability to tap this universe's store of ambient magical energy and manipulate this to a variety of effects. The skill derived from three major sources: personal powers of the mind/soul/body, powers gained by tapping the universe's ambient magical energy and employing it for specific effects, and, finally, powers gained through the tapping of extra-dimensional energy by invoking entities or objects of power existing in tangential mystical dimensions.
To begin with his personal powers, Cagliostro has mastered the art of astral projection, the mental ability to separate the astral self – the sheath of the soul, or the life essence – from his physical self, and in this form traverse through space unbounded by the physical laws but fully retaining human consciousness. This form is invisible, intangible, and incapable of being harmed except through the most rigorous of mystical means. The astral form only possesses those magical powers residing in the sorcerer's mind: thought-casting, psychokinesis, etc. Cagliostro is of such mastery that he can remain in his astral form for up to 24 hours before there is corporeal deterioration of his physical body. The physical form is quite vulnerable to attack when the astral form is absent. If harm were to befall his physical form while he was in his astral form, he would be stranded in the wraith-like state. While the astral form is absent, the physical form remains in an inert, death-like trance.
Cagliostro has the ability to mesmerize people to do his bidding, both in person and at a distance, although he seldom employs his mastery over others' wills in so direct a way. He can cast his thoughts over short or vast distances in a manner virtually identical to telepathy. The entire Earth is within the reach of Cagliostro's mind, provided he knows where to contact the specific mind he is seeking. He can simultaneously communicate with up to a dozen minds at a time.
Cagliostro is also able to tap this universe's store of ambient magical energy and manipulate it for a variety of effects. He is able to form and hurl magical energy bolts with a high degree of potency and control. He is able to erect energy shields or screens with a high degree of imperviousness to both physical and magical damage. He is able to use local magical energy for the conjuration of small physical objects like money or rabbits, or for unusual luminescent effects. Cagliostro is also able to transform one object into another, although the transformation only lasts for as long as he wills it.
Most notably, however, Cagliostro is the world's foremost authority on temporal magic, utilizing the ambient energies to speed up, slow down, and reverse the flow of time in what appear to be impossibly wide areas. He is also capable of traveling through time, and has been known to travel to other eras. His key rule is to never travel to the same time and general locale he already exists in to avoid temporal paradoxes; as such, he does not travel forward in time if he can help it, to mitigate the possibility of such a paradox. Cagliostro's temporal magic is allegedly able to alter the past without creating diverging timelines.
Cagliostro has knowledge of a host of sorcerous spells and incantations invoking various extra-dimensional objects and beings of power. He is able to call upon these extra-dimensional power sources for very specific effects without taxing his own personal abilities. Unlike many other sorcerers, Cagliostro prefers not to rely on extradimensional entities for power. (This is most likely due to his study of the Darkhold.)
His lifespan has been unnaturally extended through alchemy derived from the Darkhold using an elixir using the blood of vampires as an ingredient.
Other Abilities: Cagliostro possesses a very charming personality and is a master con artist. He is also gifted at forgery and alchemy, having kept his skills up to date with modern technology over the centuries.
Allies: Cagliostro has a sextet of golems he animated with magic which he uses to do his "heavy lifting", including but not limited to killing his vampire captives and moving large drums of chemicals.
1,165 points
| ST: 11 [10] | HP: 11 [0] | Speed: 5.75 [0] |
| DX: 11 [20] | Will: 14 [0] | Move: 5 [0] |
| IQ: 14 [80] | Per: 14 [20] | |
| HT: 12 [20] | FP: 12 [0] | SM: 0 |
| Threshold: 42 | ER: 10 | |
| Dmg: 1d-1/1d+1 | BL: 24 lbs. | |
| Dodge: 9 | Parry: 10 | DR: 12/4* (concealed vest) |
| Block: 11 | ||
Languages: English (Native) [6]; French (Native) [6]; German (Native) [6]; Italian (Native) (Native Language) [0]; Russian (Accented) [4].
Cultural Familiarities: Western (Native) [0].
Advantages: Ally Group (Golems) (25% of Starting Points; Group Size: 6; Minion, +0%; Non-Sapient, +0%) [12]; Appearance (Handsome) [12]; Charisma 3 [15]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Energy/3 [60]; Energy Reserve 10 [30]; Fashion Sense [5]; High Manual Dexterity 3 [15]; Impersonator 4 [20]; Increased Threshold 2 (Threshold: 42) [10]; Indomitable [15]; Magery 3 (Solitary Ceremonial, +10%) [38]; Magery +2 (Solitary Ceremonial, +10%; Time Realm Only, -40%) [14]; Matter/3 [60]; Mind/3 [60]; Occultist 4 [40]; Social Chameleon [5]; Space/3 [60]; Spirit/3 [60]; Status 5 [10*]; Time/5 [100]; Unfazeable [15]; Visualization [10]; Wealth (Multimillionaire 2) [100].
Perks: Accent (American Mid-Atlantic) [1]; Accent (Oxford British) [1]; Accent (Parisian) [1]; Disarming Smile [1]; Efficient (Alchemy) [1]; Haughty Sneer [1]; I Lived It! (Alchemy) 4 [4]; I Lived It! (Forgery) 4 [4].
Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Gentleman's) [-10]; Enemy (Dracula; Equal in Power) (9) [-10]; Overconfidence (12) [-5]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Selfish (9) [-7].
Quirks: Aristocratic [-1]; Chauvinistic [-1]; Checkered Past [-1]; Disadvantage Embellishment (Vampires Aren't "Innocent") [-1]; Flirtatious [-1].
Skills: Acting (A) IQ+4 [2] – 18; Alchemy/TL8 (VH) IQ+6 [16] – 20‡; Artist (Illumination) (H) IQ-1 [2] – 13; Astronomy/TL8 (Observation) (A) IQ+0 [2] – 14; Autohypnosis (H) Will+0 [4] – 14; Body Language (Human) (A) Per+3 [1] – 17†; Brawling (E) DX+2 [4] – 13; Climbing (A) DX+0 [2] – 11; Connoisseur (Literature) (A) IQ+0 [1] – 13; Connoisseur (Music) (A) IQ+0 [1] – 13; Connoisseur (Visual Arts) (A) IQ+0 [1] – 13; Connoisseur (Wine) (A) IQ+0 [1] – 13; Current Affairs/TL8 (High Culture) (E) IQ+0 [1] – 14; Dancing (A) DX-1 [1] – 10; Diplomacy (H) IQ+0 [4] – 14; Esoteric Medicine (H) Per+0 [4] – 14; Exorcism (H) IQ+4 [4] – 18‡; Fast-Talk (A) IQ+0 [2] – 14§; Forgery/TL8 (H) IQ+2 [12] – 16; Gambling (A) IQ+0 [2] – 14; Heraldry (A) IQ-1 [1] – 13; Hiking (A) HT+0 [2] – 12; History (Napoleonic to Modern Western) (H) IQ+2 [1] – 16‡; Holdout (A) IQ+0 [2] – 14; Hypnotism (Human) (H) IQ+0 [4] – 14; Innate Attack (Beam) (E) DX+3 [8] – 14; Innate Attack (Gaze) (E) DX+3 [6] – 14#; Judo (H) DX+1 [8] – 12; Mathematics/TL8 (Applied) (H) IQ+0 [4] – 14; Mathematics/TL8 (Pure) (H) IQ+0 [4] – 14; Mind Block (A) Will+1 [4] – 15; Naturalist (Earth) (H) IQ-2 [1] – 12; Observation (A) Per+0 [2] – 14; Pharmacy/TL8 (Herbal) (H) IQ+0 [4] – 14; Poisons/TL8 (H) IQ+0 [4] – 14; Politics (A) IQ+0 [2] – 14; Psychology (Human) (H) IQ+0 [4] – 14; Public Speaking (A) IQ+2 [1] – 16¥; Rapier (A) DX+1 [4] – 12; Research/TL8 (A) IQ+3 [1] – 17‡; Running (A) HT+0 [2] – 12; Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ+4 [1] – 18†§; Sex Appeal (A) HT+3 [1] – 15§¶; Shadowing (A) IQ+0 [2] – 14; Shield (Force) (E) DX+3 [8] – 14; Stealth (A) DX+1 [4] – 12; Swimming (E) HT+0 [1] – 12; Teaching (A) IQ+0 [2] – 14; Thaumatology (VH) IQ+6 [4] – 20¤; Theology (Comparative) (H) IQ-2 [1] – 12; Throwing (A) DX+0 [2] – 11.
Magical Realm Skills: Energy (VH) IQ+2 [4] – 16¤; Matter (VH) IQ+2 [4] – 16¤; Mind (VH) IQ+2 [4] – 16¤; Space (VH) IQ+2 [4] – 16¤; Spirit (VH) IQ+2 [4] – 16¤; Time (VH) IQ+11 [32] – 25£.
Alchemical Techniques: Alchemical Antidote (Alchemy) (H) def+3 [4] – 20; Forgetfulness (Alchemy) (H) def+4 [5] – 20; Hybridization (Alchemy) (H) def+4 [5] – 20; Youth (Alchemy) (H) def+9 [10] – 20.
Starting Spending Money: $40,000,000 (20% of Starting Wealth).
* Includes +3 from Wealth.
† Includes +4 from Impersonator.
‡ Includes +4 from Occultist.
§ Conditional +3 from Charisma when used as an Influence skill.
# Defaulted from Innate Attack (Beam).
¥ Includes +3 from Charisma.
¶ Includes +4 from Appearance.
¤ Includes +3 from Magery.
£ Includes +5 from Magery.
Role-Playing Notes:
Cagliostro generally presents himself as suave, charming, and friendly, with an "Old World" air about him. However, he is primarily concerned with his own affairs, seeing people simply as a means to an end. At one point, he loved his wives: Serafina and Marie Laveau; he probably still loves them, though both relationships ended badly.
The exception to his charm is when vampires are concerned; he never considers vampires to be the victims, and feels no guilt about taking their blood for his elixirs.
| BRAWLING | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TL | Weapon | Damage | Reach | Parry | Cost | Weight | ST | Notes |
| – | Brawling Punch | 1d-1 cr | C | 10 | – | – | 11 | |
| – | Brawling Kick | 1d cr | C, 1 | n/a | – | – | 11 | |
Design Notes:
1. The Magery 3 price combines the price of an unmodified Magery 0 [5] with the modified Magery 3 (Solitary Ceremonial, +10%) [33]. It just looked wrong when placing the two on the sheet together. In the Marvel Universe, it is possible to increase one's Magery level through study.
2. Cagliostro's One-Realm Only Magery is due to him having mastered time magic. For the Time Realm and any of its sub-realms, treat him as having Magery 5 instead of Magery 3.