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Real Name: Hamilton Slade Occupation: Archaeologist Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record. Identity: Secret Place of Birth: Reno, Nevada Marital Status: Single Known Relatives: Lincoln and Carter Slade (great-great-grandfather and great-great-granduncle) Base of Operations: American Southwest Past Group Affiliations: The Rangers Known Powers: Alter Ego: When not possessed by the spirit of the Ghost Rider, Hamilton Slade has the following statistics:
His Health is 46, and his Karma begins at 36. Hamilton has no supernatural
powers. Equipment: Spectral Six-Shooter: The Ghost Rider may fire an unlimited number of phantom bullets form his spectral ‘six-shooter’ which can pass through intervening objects to hit their target, but do no physical damage. A struck target must make an Endurance FEAT against Incredible intensity stunning or be knocked out for 1-10 turns. The bullets have a range of three areas. Mystic Lariat: The Ghost Rider’s lariat is also of mystic origin. He can throw it one area away. It is considered a Grappling attack at Amazing strength and can pass through material objects like his bullets. It is made of an Amazing material. Animals: Banshee: The Ghost Rider’s horse appears upon command. She has similar powers of intangibility and invisibility. Banshee never tires and can move three areas per round. Talents: The Ghost Rider has both the Gun and Horsemanship talents. Slade has Archaeology. Contacts: The Ghost Rider was a member of the Rangers and could, perhaps, call on the other members for aid. Role-Playing Notes: The Ghost Rider is a ‘driven’ hero, crusading not so much to champion Good as to combat Evil. He seems the most vengeful of the Rangers. History: Hamilton Slade is an archeologist whose interest in the lore of the American Indians was spurred during childhood by his parents’ accounts of his family’s claim to fame in the history of the Southwest. His great-great-uncle, Carter Slade, had been a schoolteacher who was gunned down by outlaws soon after moving to the frontier. Found by a friendly tribe of Comanche Indians, Carter was nursed back to health by the medicine man Flaming Star. The aging Indian believed Carter to be the champion the Comanche sky spirit had revealed to him in a vision a year earlier. Carter Slade was given a special chalk-white cowboy outfit impregnated with special phosphorescent dust that Flaming Star had recovered from a meteorite. Wearing it, Slade soon created the legend of a phantom horseman who rode the frontier, serving the cause of justice. This seemingly supernatural figure was called various names, Ghost Rider, Night Rider, Phantom Rider, the Galloping Ghost, the Haunted Horseman, and He-Who-Rides-the-Night-Winds among them. When Carter Slade was killed by out laws, his brother U.S. Marshall Lincoln Slade adopted the identity and carried on the legend. Although Carter died unmarried and childless, Lincoln had two sons, one of whom was the grandfather of Hamilton Slade. While studying archeology, Hamilton Slade hoped to some day discover the burial place of his famous great-great grandfather. One day, while leading a team of archeologists from the University of Nevada, Slade did come upon the resting place of his ancestor, in a subterranean cave beneath a Comanche burial mound. Unable to contain his excitement, Slade investigated the site alone, and was startled when the ghostly garb of the Ghost Rider levitated from a burial urn as he approached. In a blinding flash, Slade was possessed by the spirit of one of the phantom horsemen and acquired a host of spectral powers, far beyond those once possessed by his mortal ancestors. Joined by the ghost of the Night Rider’s horse, Banshee, he galloped off into the night to save stunt rider Johnny Blaze from the magician Moondark. Upon the successful completion of this mission, Slade resumed his normal form, with no memory of his possession. Now, whenever there is evil nearby, Slade is transformed into the Phantom Rider to combat it. He still has no idea why he is subject to occasional memory lapses. The Phantom Rider was one of the five individuals who intercepted a call for help from Rick Jones to the Avengers when Jones was being held captive by the Corruptor. He joined with Red Wolf, Firebird, Shooting Star, and Texas Twister to battle the Hulk under the Corruptor’s influence, and later agreed to help them form the Rangers, the Southwest’s answer to the Avengers. He has mostly operated alone since that time, however. |