Storyline Assitance

[levi]

Calling all GMs and Players!! I have been running a campaign for the last couple of months (alternate weekends) and I have come to a point in the story that could go a number of different ways. I would appreciate any input on what you as GMs or Players would do/like to see.

Here's the story so far...Warning Long!!!

Watchmen Campaign

The Watchmen
Power Fist – Nathaniel Johnson - HS Kid – Strong but slow
Scorpion – Drake Dakota - MA Instructor – Hero-worshipping MA
Phantom – Daniel Anderson - Lab Assist – Desolid / TP

Mysterious Benefactor – Greg Appledon
Appledon Enterprises - Hospital Tech Firm
Appledon's Goals
Build ‘em up – Tear down Champions
Appledon is Teleios
Greg Appledon = doppleganger

Issue 1 – New Heroes on the Block
Each PC is dismissed / overshadowed by Champions
Recruited by Appledon
Each is approached in Secret ID and invited to a meeting
Gives them a high tech Watertower Base & Team Uniforms
On 1st patrol fighting Esper & Armadillo
One Mind Controlled thug is hospitalized by Power-Fist (doesn't know his own STR)
Armadillo and Esper get away and PCs bolt when cops are heard
Young thugs (who were being MC'd and were abandoned by Esper and Armadillo) get credited as heroes by the newspaper

Issue 2 - Rampage Gone Wrong
HS Rival – Gordon Donovan picks a fight with Nathan by threatening Timmy (a gearhead kid in Nate's shop class). Nate beats him, but Gordon is obviously tougher than a normal person. Tiffany Thompson (Nate's HS crush) berates him for picking on poor Gordan. Later Nate's motorcycle is torched in the HS parking lot.

Drake's O'sensei leaves to visit his brother in Japan – Leaves Drake in charge of the dojo – Ken (O'sensei's son) tries to get away with shirking his responsibilities and when confronted he blames his recent distractions on an obsession with "Scorpion Ninja" Ken and his father saw one night.

Lab hires new Dr. – Laura Palamaris – Daniel is assigned to her project and they flirt. Her project is to breech a dimensional barier and open a portal to the sixth dimension.

New Gear – Appledon gives PCs bulletproof spandex uniforms & Communicators
Training Day – Appledon works them hard to increase their abilities
Phantom overhears Appledon say “Get rid of those protesters by any means necessary” on phone conversation
Ogre Rampage @ national guard armory
PCs beat him
Champs get credit
Appledon sends the PCs home for the night (very disappointed)
At a diner, they choose The Watchmen as their team name
Team discuss their suspicions about Appledon’s motives

Issue 3 - The Missing
Phantom and Power-Fist follow the cops to a gang fight in a warehouse. They find out that the local gangs have been warring due to their leadership disappearing. The Sharks gang has some new advanced tech (blasters). After stopping the gang war, the new tech is stolen by some special ops guy with a red X on his face mask. The next day Nathaniel's Mom tells him about how a co-worker's cousin (a former cop) has gone missing. Timmy tells Nate that Gordon Donovan has also gone missing and that he was seen riding off in a limo. Daniel finds out that a loose cannon scientist from work has gone missing just days after resigning and swearing revenge on the company. The two of them go on patrol that night and find that dozens of people have gone missing from North Detroit in the last three days, several have been seen driving off in limos. They also track down the cargo ship that brought the high tech gear to North Detroit and it is registered to Duchess Industries. At the Watertower, Appledon is nowhere to be seen and has powered down the base.

Issue 4 - VIPER U
While Phantom and Power-Fist are out on patrol, Drake is awoken as Ken comes crashing through the plate glass storefront of the dojo. He has been beaten badly and needs $10K to pay off a gambling debt to Jimmy Ling, a bookie for the Green Dragons gang. Drake takes Ken to the hospital and finds out that he has also been involved in an armed robbery (tried to knock over a liquor store to get the money himself). Scorpion tracks down Jimmy Ling at the Chinese Palace Theater and witnesses a display by an amazing Kung Fu Martial Artist named the Green Dragon. He also sees an active recruitment of gang members by a man representing the “Great Serpent”. Scorpion finds Jimmy Ling alone, kidnaps him and warns him to get out of making book for gangs. Then he tears Ken's marker as well as two random pages from Jimmy Ling's record book and leaves him there. Once back at the hospital, Scorpion hears about a man who was missing and was found wandering around the dock district with amnesia. The cops tell each other that the man's wife had received a call from the city of Honor, WI the day before he reappeared. The heroes regroup, compare notes and decide to go to Honor, WI to check things out. The heroes stumble into the Green Hill Resort (cover for a VIPER training facility) outside of Honor, WI and Drake becomes trapped in the swimming pool with a hungry, disoriented 12 foot long tiger shark. Phantom and Power-Fist bail him out and the three of them are pursued by armed guards into the wilderness nearby where they meet Silver Avenger Starlan. SA Starlan has been sent to bring in Kevin Armstrong, a former SA turned VIPER agent. He fills in the blanks on the VIPER activity and recruits the trio of heroes to help him capture Armstrong. They infiltrate the VIPER training facility and find Armstrong (who is known as Viper-X) and a new Dragon Branch recruit named Power Crusher. In the battle, PC and SA Starlan are KO'd and Viper-X escapes. Phantom ports the group out (one at a time) escaping the alerted VIPER agents. SA Starlan thanks the heroes and says he owes them one.

Issue 5 - Homecoming
Returning to their “normal” lives the heroes deal with their friends / family and having been gone for 3 days (Fri, Sat, Sun).
NPC Update
Phantom
Matt (lab partner / drinking buddy): Tried to contact Daniel and was told that he was out of town visiting sick father.
Laura (project coordinator / love interest) has developed a way to breach the sixth dimension, but her plan will overload the facilities power generators as well as the city power grid.
Scorpion
Ken is still in Hospital and the Police have questioned him.
A good student named Jamal has stepped up around the dojo and Drake hires him on full time.
Power-Fist
Tiffany and Nate are on good terms again and kinda dating
Timmy has finished the basic build on Nate's new bike
Mom tells Nathaniel that she is considering moving to San Angelo, CA after he graduates HS.

The Watchmen get a call from Appledon who calls them to the Watertower and briefs them on a VIPER front facility in North Detroit making combat robots. He sends them to destroy the facility. They go to check things out and after infiltrating the building and finding a robot assembly line making both combat and construction bots they disable the techs and start destroying the equipment. Several of the robots become active and attack. Once the active bots are down, the facility is destroyed (mostly by Power-Fist) and the Watchmen head back to base. When they get there, Appledon is nowhere to be found.
Daniel begins to examine some of the parts salvaged from the robots while Nathan and Drake watch some TV. Nate and Drake come across a Live news feed showing Defender and Sapphire being attacked by Mechanon in North Detroit, just 3 miles away. After a short debate, the Watchmen head out to help the Champions. When they arrive on the scene, Mechanon has been driven off by Ironclad and Nighthawk. Defender is pretty banged up and Sapphire is in an ambulance (but she'll be fine). Nighthawk is examining the scene of the battle while Defender and Ironclad talk to the Watchmen. Defender tells the Watchmen that he and Sapphire were responding to an alarm at a Henderson Electronics Robotic Assembly facility in North Detroit (Henderson is a friend of Defender) when Mechanon ambushed them. The Watchmen stutter their way through the rest of the conversation as Defender sends Nighthawk and Ironclad to check out the Henderson facility. The Watchmen leave and are summoned by Appledon to a rampage of malfunctioning construction bots in Millennium City “A perfect opportunity to show those Champions up in their own back yard!”. After a team meeting, Scorpion goes to meet up with Ironclad and Nighthawk to fill them in before they discover it was the Watchmen who attacked the facility. Power-Fist and Phantom go to Millennium City to deal with the berserk bots.

Issue 6 - ???
??? What do you think should happen next?

[Supreme Serpent]

Well, they're suspicious, so I'd start preparing for the big reveal.

If I were one of the players, at the next "mission", I'd have Scorpion or Phantom double back and follow/spy on Appledon. Meanwhile, the other two take a more careful look at the situation they see and not just charge in powers blazing.

Call in the favor from their SA buddy to see what he can pull up on Appledon.

Defender should be concerned that some of the combots became active right off the assembly line - someone may be sabotaging them. Perhaps have a story of previously sold Henderson combots going berzerk on their owners? Dangerous trying to do a recall on those!

[StGrimblefig]

First Question: What is Appledon's long-range plan for this group / why did he organize them in the first place?
Knowing that will help figure out what his next move should be. I am, of course, assuming that he has a plan in mind. It is also possible that he is just enjoying the irony of having heroes working for him, but that is less satisfying as a GM than a more planned-out scheme. If he has a plan, he should be following it. Of course, if he sees that the Watchmen are having doubts, he will naturally have a contingency plan or two...

Second Question: What is Appledon's opinion of the Watchmen?
If he thinks of these supers as powerful idiots that he can manipulate to do his dirty work, then he may not realize that they are figuring out what the situation really is. If he is trying to play on their hurt and anger at being "dissed" by the Champions, he should be playing to those Psych Lims (if they have one about the Champs) and slowly drawing them over to the dark side. This will be especially effective if he starts having one-on-one conversations with each of them, sowing the seeds of doubt as to each other's motives as well as obfuscating the entire situation with the Champions. Of course he will be able to produce "evidence" that the Champs are just trying to cover their own rear ends about the robot factory ("Mechanon never really attacked, that was just an excuse why they were not helping you at the factory -- see, here's the 911 tapes for that night, with no mention of Mechanon.").

Third Question: How closely (and how) is Appledon watching the Watchmen?
This will make a difference on whether he knows that they are having doubts, and what he decides to do about it. If he does not have a high opinion of the heroes, he may not be watching them at all. I would be surprised if the base that he provided for them is not wired for surveillance, however. The communicators would likewise be easily bugged both for recording and tracking purposes.

There you have it -- no direct answers, but a few ideas to think about. Hope they help.

[levi]

Thanks for the input folks. Now to answer some questions.

Appledon (Teleios) organized these young heroes to replace the Champions in Millenium City so that he would have control over the city's premiere Super Team.

Appledon knows they have raw power/skill but he is concerned about Phantom's suspicious nature and Scorpion's hero worship of the Champions. Power-Fist is the most trusting of Appledon and the one Appledon thinks he has the most control over.

The Watchmen just found out last issue that Appledon uses their communicators to monitor them. He has shown them visual and auditory recordings from their encounters.

[levi]

bump...anyone?

[death tribble]

Viper will want to have a go at the people who disrupted their base and attacked one of their supers.

Gordon also needs to do something to remind Nate that he is around.

And the Chinese ain't gonna sit still and let matters go.

What about the dojo ? Perfect recruiting ground for the Triad/Tong. Or for Viper.

One of the team could fall ill and need hospital treatment. All a ruse to allow Telios to get skin/blood samples

[OddHat]

Time to have Appledon send them on missions that have progressively easier to spot dark sides.

1) Mad Monsters. A renegade Viper scienist is making monsters. Appledon sends the heroes to stop him, then suggest archiving his data in the base computers, as they never know when they might need it. A very careful player may realize that Appledo also accessed the data.

2) The Purple Healing Ray. Appledon adds a Purple Healing Ray to the base equipment, a sensory deprivation tank that scans the inhabitant at a genetic level, then uses nanites and drugs to heal almost any wound. A mad killing machine of a mutant attacks the Champions; only the Purple Healing Ray can save the injured. Say, why does the database of the ray link to the base computers? Appledon accesses the data.

3) Bizzaro Iron Night Defender. A strange new vigilante is killing criminals and wrecking property. He looks ... oddly familiar. A scan of his mind shows twisted thought processes, madness, half memories, and images of the Champions, the Watchmen, and Appledon. If genetically scanned, the creature shows signs of the DNA patterns of the monsters created by the Viper scientist, and of several people ... all of whom have been subjected to the Purple Healing Ray.

Add two or three non-suspicious missions between each creepy mission for bonus points.

[Chimpira]

I think at this time Telios would already have all the data he needed from the players. Remember those nice new shiny uniforms he supplied them with? They transmit data to a central computer that helps him sync up the genetic information on the clones he is preparing to take over the PC's life. The other matter is whom was Telios speaking to on the phone? Telios also knows who is important to the PC's and might kidnap a few and replace them with loyal clones. It would make the PC's extremely paranoid.

[StGrimblefig]

I must admit that I do not know who Teleios is. If he is in CKC, I do not have that book (yet), so if you would please indulge me with a quick synopsis of his capabilities.


Appledon (Teleios) organized these young heroes to replace the Champions in Millenium City so that he would have control over the city's premiere Super Team.
Then he should be goading the team as often as possible to be better than the Champs, to get to the scene quicker, to handle the situation better/faster. Of course, he may not care too much about who they hurt in the process, but he will downplay that and try to focus on the greater good. An attitude something like, "What have you done to beat the Champions today?" complete with motivational posters will keep this in the Watchmen's minds (and keep their minds away from his manipulations). It is probably not good to paint them as enemies (yet), but more as rivals -- the Watchmen will never really be "good enough" until they are better than the Champions. Pounding that into their heads day after day will have an effect on their attitudes toward the Champions.


Appledon knows they have raw power/skill but he is concerned about Phantom's suspicious nature and Scorpion's hero worship of the Champions. Power-Fist is the most trusting of Appledon and the one Appledon thinks he has the most control over.
He sould be courting Power-Fist to be the leader (when calling them to action, he calls Power Fist and asks HIM to assemble the team -- it is the little things that ultimately have the greatest effect), trying to displace Phantom's distrust to someone else (e.g. the Champions, or maybe Scorpion since he "worships" the Champs) and pointing out to Scorpion the more human (read: less heroic) natures of the Champions. Of course, he does this in private meetings, maybe in their secret IDs, and tries to keep them from being able to focus on the real threat.


The Watchmen just found out last issue that Appledon uses their communicators to monitor them. He has shown them visual and auditory recordings from their encounters.
Then he should be using them in the most positive and benign use as possible -- training. They should always have "after action" sessions that include viewing the "game films" and training to improve their abilities and reduce their weaknesses (at least, the ones that Appledon does not want to keep for later exploitation). This will show them that he has no ulterior motive for the recordings, and keep them too busy to compare notes on their suspicions. If the Champions are also involved in any event at which they appear, he can also use the oppotunity to keep the pressure on them regarding the Champs, and make it look like they are undermining the Watchmen in subtle ways.

Eventually, the Watchmen will figure out that Appledon is not as good as he claims, and even find out who he really is, but you should try to delay that as long as possible -- both to heighten the suspense in the campaign, and because that break should be the climax of a grand story arc (the equivalent of a extra-special double sized annual issue of a comic book). It should be accompanied by an epic battle, where Teleios, now unmasked, reveals the depth of his treachery and shows how he has hedged his bets by analyzing and being able to neutralize each of their powers -- only by showing true heroism (and possibly nearly sacrificing themselves) can they defeat him.

What their relationship to the Champions is like at the end of this is open to debate -- I could see that the Watchmen might be humble and apologetic to the greater team for their earlier actions, but I could also see the long-term effects of Telios' conditioning efforts making that difficult -- it depends mostly on the personalities of the Watchmen and what they did to/against the Champions.

[levi]

I think at this time Telios would already have all the data he needed from the players. Remember those nice new shiny uniforms he supplied them with? They transmit data to a central computer that helps him sync up the genetic information on the clones he is preparing to take over the PC's life. The other matter is whom was Telios speaking to on the phone? Telios also knows who is important to the PC's and might kidnap a few and replace them with loyal clones. It would make the PC's extremely paranoid.

Teleios has gathered bio data from all three of them. During training sessions and during Power Level Assessment sessions. Of course he had to make sure none of their powers would interfere with the New Comms he gave them. Clones of them and possibly their DNPCs are definitely in the plan.

How do you think the Champions (Nighthawk and Ironclad) would respond when Scorpion comes clean? The Watchmen are only coming clean to the Champions because they are worried that Nighthawk will find out that they trashed the lab anyway and hope that by telling him themselves it will make things better.

[Chimpira]

Being duped comes with the territory. Ironclad would know that better than anyone. I see him being very sympathetic to their plight. Nighthawk will be sceptical. He might see it as a trap since they were going to find out whom were responsible anyways. He would relish a chance to take down Telios. He might propose a counter mission to dismantle his whole network (think Alias the tV show) and maybe find information on any contacts that he has. That is, of course, only if the PC was wise enough to not wear any of the items that had been supplied by Telios during the talk.