My champions campaign so far

[Chimpira]

Hey guys. I am not sure if anyone will find this interesting but I have my log for my ongoing campaign 'Millennium Blues'. It is not complete and I still need to write down what the players are doing now but I thought some of you might be interested in seeing what style of game I run. Oh, yeah the players finally picked a name for their group, The Protectors. You will note that I do not reference that in the actual text of the log mainly because I have not caught up to that point yet.;)

It's kind of long. Sorry.

[Chimpira]

The Protectors

Issue 1
During the funeral procession for the superhero, Hydro, four heroes met for the first time at a diner called The Greasy Spoon. The heroes names were Pyre, Arsenal, Shadow Wolf and The Promise. The Promise had come to the area in search of anyone that could help her pull off a daring raid against some kidnappers. She did not know the kidnappers strength or numbers but she could locate the general area in which the child, Sarah, had been taken. The three reluctantly agreed to help The Promise. After a very small amount of investigation, the quartet discovered that Sarah had been kidnaped by the forces of Argent and that she was being experimented on. The Four assaulted the base and caused considerable damage. Although the evil organization sent a sizable force against them, the mercenaries in the employ of Argent were no match for the four heroes. The heroes did not run into any serious opposition until they met King Mob, Punch Judy, and Lightning Jack. The three villains were contracted out by The Association to safeguard Teleios, A notorious criminal biochemist. The two forces clashed and swiftly fell into a stalemate. King Mob proposed a truce and the villains released Sarah after Teleios was done taking several samples from her. The Heroes returned Sarah to her Mother, Georgia.

Observations:
1. The Promise collapsed after Sarah was saved and revived several minutes later.
2. Arsenal and The Arbiter moved in with Georgia and Sarah.
3. The Greasy Spoon has dreadful food but most patrons come to talk with Flow the waitress.

Issue 2
Pyre, Shadow Wolf and The Promise were alerted to an apartment complex that had been taken over by vegetation. No one that had been able to enter the building had come back out. After stopping at the Greasy Spoon, the trio made their way to the complex. At the site they met Corporal Antoine Harrison, an officer in the Metahuman Activities Response Squad or MARS. He advised the trio that several superhumans have entered the building and none have returned. The only thing sent back out was a helmet with ‘Please send more’ written on it. Taking full responsibility, Harrison allowed the heroes to enter the complex. Inside the Complex the heroes fought mind controlled members of MARS, Kodiak and Technique as well as a huge plant creature. During the running battle, the heroes saw a woman being dragged into an elevator. The trio pursued the woman and did battle with a mind controlled Night Wind and Cavalier. The heroes discovered that the person behind the mind controlling was Thorn. The heroes defeated Thorn and released a reporter named Jenny Dugan. Jenny revealed that there is a lot more to the death of Hydro than was currently believed.

Observations:
1. Jenny Dugan is a Nega-mind. One of a handful of people that cannot be controlled by any form of mind control or telepathy.
2. Pyre started a panic by claiming to be Firewing.
3. Pyre had a vision of a beautiful evil woman.
4. Pyre mistakenly shot Jenny Dugan in the back

Issue 3
Dugan informed Pyre, Shadow Wolf and The Promise that she had been investigating the murder of Hydro. The evidence against the murder suspect, Tara Lemick, seemed very solid. Lemick, in the identity of Lady Blue, had put a hole in Hydros’ chest on national television and had endangered the lives of hundreds of civilians in the area with several buildings catching on fire and one collapsing entirely. Lemick had been apprehended by a group of heroes and turned over to the authorities. It was brought into the open that Lemick had a past history of alcohol abuse and had been placed in a clinic more than one time for it. She showed signs of heavy drug use after the battle with Hydro and the toxicology screen came up positive. Worse yet, she failed a lie detector test to prove that she had not taken those drugs herself.

Dugan was following leads on this story and had turned up evidence of a mass cover up when she had been attacked. Dugan believed that Thorn had been hired to find out whom she had shared her information with and then to kill her. She asked the heroes to help her with the investigation. She had been attacked after making Lady Blue’s defense attorney, Celia Ko, aware of certain problems with the police investigation. Dugan had three leads and asked the trio to look into them. Pyre was to visit Dr. Marjorie Kiefer, the County’s Chief Medical Examiner, for information concerning the autopsy of Hydro and the cause of his death. The Promise was to meet with Ray Marlowe, a Homicide detective out of the ninth precinct, and try to find out the details of the last case Hydro had worked on with him. Shadow Wolf was to investigate Michael Thompson, a reporter for The Adair Network, and discover why he was in the area with a full camera crew when Lady Blue went on her rampage.

Pyre discovered that Dr. Kiefer did not do the autopsy. She was stopped by Joseph Heller, an agent of the FBI, whom was a specialist in the field of Metahuman physiology and was appointed to do the autopsy. Heller had all the necessary paperwork signed by the Police Chief, James Surhoff. However Dr. Kiefer had taken a quick look over the body before it was taken away from her and she noted that the body had a hole burned into it. This information did not match with Lady Blues’ usual form of attack which causes severe blunt damage. She had reported this to the chiefs office but was told that they would investigate the matter.

The Promise discovered that Hydro had involved himself in the D20 murders supposedly perpetrated by Dean Mansfield, Jared Sheffield, Jefferson Cram, and The Dark Enchantress. Mansfield, Sheffield and Cram had been caught after Hydros’ death and were awaiting trial for the murder of thirteen women and five men and the kidnaping of over thirty minors. Hydro had located, what appeared to be the thirteenth victim of the killers. She had been horribly beaten and disfigured in such a way to make positive identification almost impossible. Marlowe told The Promise that Hydro had turned to Dr. Silverback, a genius talking ape, to help with the reconstruction of the dead woman’s skull and face. Marlowe informed The Promise that the trio had denied killing the thirteenth woman. Of course they were, also, claiming to be mind controlled by The Dark Enchantress, so anything they say could not be taken at face value.

Shadow Wolf broke into the Adair Building and searched through Michael Thompson’s desk. He was able to learn the location of Thompson’s house.

The three heroes went to visit Dr. Silverback and learned that he had been able to not only reconstruct the dead woman’s face but was able to put a name, Priscilla Taylor, to her as well. Taylor had been a quantum physicist in the employ of The Binary Corporation. Silverback had planned on sharing this data with the District’s attorneys office but had not quite gotten around to it yet as he had just gotten the information recently. The heroes learned from Silverback that Hydro had a mystery partner in his investigation of the murders. He had no idea whom it might have been but told the heroes that they might find a clue at Hydros’ old base.

The three heroes went to Hydros base and discovered his files as well as a few books left by Tara Lemick. The files revealed that Tara Lemick had discovered the body of Taylor but because of Lady Blues’ past record she did not feel comfortable going to the police, so she contacted Hydro instead. The condition of Taylor’s body was so disturbing to Lemick that she could not allow Hydro to pursue this without her. His notes seemed to indicate that he and Lemick were becoming friends and maybe a little more. Hydro’s notes showed that he had his doubts whether this was connected to the disappearances of other women, in what would later be known as The D20 Killings. The duo conducted several investigation on the matter and had contacted Taylor’s former Supervisor, Angela Majestroes. Majestroes had told the pair that Taylor had quit her job at the Binary Corporation and that she did not know more than that.

The heroes stopped at The Greasy Spoon to sort through all the information that they had. They needed more information on the agent that had performed the autopsy on Hydro. They called Corporal Harrison to see if he could be of help. He informed them that perhaps they might be able to convince Kodiak to look into the matter for them as they had saved him from being mind controlled by Thorn. They called Kodiak, whom did as they requested and looked into the matter. He contacted the heroes and informed them that their has never been an agent fitting their description in the employ of the FBI.

The heroes decided that it was time to talk to Michael Thompson. On the way the group was attacked by E-Bomb, an electrically based supervillian. After heavy fighting Pyre was able to defeat E-bomb. The heroes turned him over to the police that had responded to the scene. After the police left, another patrol car appeared and said that they were responding to calls of a Metahuman battle in the area. Pyre, immediately, took to the air but could find no trace of the fraudulent police or E-Bomb.

Observations:
1. The heroes learn that E-Bomb had done work for VIPER in the past.

2. Pyre got on Dr. Silverback’s bad side by constantly referring to him as a monkey and making banana jokes. Silverback currently refuses to talk to Pyre.
3. The Headquarters that Hydro used is referred to as The Shrine by Dr. Silverback and has housed the greatest heroes of Detroit stretching all the way back to Mister X, the first costumed hero in Detroit.
4. The heroes learned that Jenny Dugan is the daughter of the deceased Journalist Jimmy Dugan. Jimmy Dugan had been killed by VIPER after they had attempted to get the reporter to spread lies about Maryland Representative David Sutherland, the former superhero Invictus.
5. Shadow Wolf in his civilian identity is approached by a woman known as Silverfish to represent her gang in a cage match fight versus a representative of a rival gang that is threatening to swallow up all the Asian gangs. Shadow Wolf agreed to the match.

Issue 4
The heroes contacted Arsenal and asked him to join them as they believed they would need his expertise. They, also, contacted Dugan and used her van as more or less a mobile HQ. The promise talked to Celia Ko, Lady Blues’ defense attorney and was turned away by the woman, whom would not even hear anything about the possible evidence that the heroes had discovered.

The heroes went to search the house of Priscilla Taylor but found it to be immaculate and all the computer systems wiped clean. Taylor’s neighbor inquired if they had made any progress in finding the woman. He had called in to the police to report her missing and had spoken to the officer’s that arrived on the scene but after they discovered that she never really talked to him about business matters they pretty much dismissed him out of hand. He had forgotten to tell them about her other house in the country that she would go to get away from the distractions of the city. The heroes followed this lead and discovered that she had been working on a computer at her second house. Arsenal studied the files and what he found disturbed him greatly.

Taylor had been working on a teleportation system based off of alien transmissions that had been intercepted by her supervisor, Angela Majestroes. Majestroes had used it before proper test had been conducted and emerged with Super powers. Majestroes behavior had become more volatile and Taylor had planned on reporting Majestroes. Arsenal downloaded the information that Taylor had on her system and discovered something else buried their that Taylor had not found. It was a warning in an alien language. The signal was a apart of the prison that kept a cosmic evil at bay, a world destroyer. Arsenal believed that the alien had altered his prison somehow to send forth a signal that could release it from its’ prison. The message was unintentionally sent along with the signal. The Promise, thinking about the possible VIPER connection, remembered something one of her contacts had said about possible Projects VIPER were interested in. One of them was called Project Two Step. The Project was put into place to find a way to make a reliable mass teleportation device for VIPER.

The heroes acquired footage of the battle between Hydro and Lady Blue. Arsenal noticed some inconsistences in the film and was able to detect the presence of a woman on the film that was clearly using a holographic device on herself as the shadows on herself did not match those around her.

The heroes loaded up into Dugan’s van and went to question Michael Thompson. Arsenal and Pyre went to talk to Thompson while everyone else waited in the van. At the door Thompson was assaulted by Pyre. Thompson refused to talk in Pyre’s presence and only agreed to talk to Arsenal if he removed his armor. Arsenal agreed and entered the house. As Arsenal was distracted Thompson shot him in the back with a laser gun and took the evidence that Arsenal had come to confront him with. Thompson fled to the basement. Arsenal was able to cry for help and the heroes came rushing in. Pyre and Shadow Wolf made their way to the basement as The Promise used her empathic healing on Arsenal to take his wounds onto herself. In the basement the two heroes discover a bomb and ran for their lives. Arsenal and The Promise made it out but not before the Promise managed to grab a nearby appointment book. The house disappeared in a huge fireball and the heroes fled the area.

In the van, The Promise was able to discern that the appointment book had code imbedded in the addresses and numbers. She was able to recognize the code that made up four new numbers. After she called one of the numbers The Promise and Arsenal were able to track down the location which the number belonged to. It was a warehouse located in the City of Windsor in nearby Canada. The Four heroes with Jenny driving the van crossed the border and attempted to infiltrate the base. Unfortunately the base seemed to be on high alert and a grand melee ensued. The heroes escaped with their lives and the base was destroyed by its’ former VIPER inhabitants.

Observations:
1. The Promise showed strong moral character by not invading Celia Ko’s mind.
2. The Promise, through research, discovered that Celia Ko had an husband and two children.
3. Michael Thompson was an agent of VIPER but has been a reporter for years at the Adair Network.
4. Shadow Wolf is at a loss when it comes to modern day security systems.
5. Jenny Dugan is known by many law enforcement agencies and none are pleased to hear her name.
6. VIPER is tough as hell.

Issue 5

The heroes fly back to Millennium City and while en route, Arsenal received a call on his radio. He is informed that his loved ones had been kidnaped and that the heroes are all framed for the murder of Michael Thompson. The caller informed Arsenal where he would need to be to get more information on what VIPER wanted them to do. The team hid out while the media ran a smear campaign against the heroes. The one dissenting voice on the airwaves was Dr. Silverback, but the public was more than swayed by the Adair network and their devotion to find the killers of one of their reporters. All government officials that had public dealings with the heroes were suspended pending investigation. During all the media coverage, The Binary Corporation debuted the superteam that they were sponsoring, The Vindicators and their first order of business was to capture the heroes. Arsenal recognized the corporate liaison to the team. Her name was Angela Majestroes but when Arsenal had met her several years ago she called Linda Kartar.

Arsenal and Promise flew to the meeting place while Shadow Wolf and Pyre ran interference with the majority of MCPD. Arsenal was informed by Lt. Sanders of VIPER that the price for the release of his friends was for the heroes to publically assault the Assistant County Prosecutor in charge of Tara Lemick’s case. Arsenal demanded to speak to Georgia or Sally to make sure that they were safe. He heard a loud scream on the phone that he knew belonged to Sally and was disconnected.

The Promise and Shadow Wolf visited Doctor Silverback in their civilian identities to keep him up to date on their status and to see if he could offer any help. He recommended that they look into Priscilla Taylor as this all seemed to be traced back to her. Pyre went to Leo’s Bar, a hangout for henchmen, and discovered a rumor about Thunderbird coming to Millennium City to kill Lemick. The rumor was that the MCPD on duty knew that Thunderbird was in town but relaxed security on purpose. Pyre relayed this information to all the heroes via The Promise’s mind link.

Arsenal took off to the court house, where the city had transported Lemick for court proceedings. He arrived just in time to witness Lemick being shot by Thunderbird from an adjacent rooftop. Arsenal dived in front of Lemick’s body to shield her and was shot himself. Arsenal used a teleport device that he had been working on to teleport himself and Lemick to the relative safety of The Shrine. Pyre, Shadow Wolf and The Promise arrived on the scene just in time to witness Arsenal teleporting away. Shadow Wolf and Pyre engaged Thunderbird on the roof and were not making much headway in the fight when The Vindicators arrived. All but ignoring Thunderbird The Vindicators focused their attacks on Shadow Wolf and Pyre. After a brief fight the Vindicators allowed the heroes to leave. It seemed that they were more interested in making the heroes look more like criminals than in actually capturing them. The heroes fled and regrouped at The Shrine.

At The Shrine Lemick still had no recollection of what had caused her to kill Hydro. The Promise probed her mind and discovered that a block had been put in her memories, with a little difficulty The Promise destroyed the block and Lemick’s memories came flooding back. Lemick and Hydro had teamed up and fell into a trap set by VIPER and Lt. Sanders. She was forced to watch as Sanders murdered the man that she loved. Lemick believed that The Diviner from The Vindicators was the one responsible for her blocked memories.

The heroes, in their civilian identities, went to search the house of Priscilla Taylor but found it to be immaculate and all the computer systems wiped clean. Taylor’s neighbor inquired if they had made any progress in finding the woman. He had called in to the police to report her missing and had spoken to the officer’s that arrived on the scene but after they discovered that she never really talked to him about business matters they pretty much dismissed him out of hand. He had forgotten to tell them about her other house in the country that she would go to get away from the distractions of the city. The heroes followed this lead and discovered that she had been working on a computer at her second house. Arsenal studied the files and what he found disturbed him greatly.

Taylor had been working on a teleportation system based off of alien transmissions that had been intercepted by her supervisor, Angela Majestroes. Majestroes had used it before proper test had been conducted and emerged with Super powers. Majestroes behavior had become more volatile and Taylor had planned on reporting Majestroes. Arsenal downloaded the information that Taylor had on her system and discovered something else buried there that Taylor had not found. It was a warning in an alien language. The signal was a apart of the prison that kept a cosmic evil at bay, a world destroyer. Arsenal believed that the alien had altered his prison somehow to send forth a signal that could release it from it’s prison. The message was unintentionally sent along with the signal. The Promise, thinking about the possible VIPER connection, remembered something one of her contacts had said about possible Projects VIPER were interested in. One of them was called Project Two Step. The Project was put into place to find a way to make a reliable mass teleportation device for VIPER.

Seeing no other recourse, The heroes tracked down the location of Majestroes home and went to confront her.

Observations:
1. Shadow Wolf had to ask Silverfish for a postponement of the fight. She readily agreed.
2. Pyre wantonly destroyed much property in eluding the police.
3. Linda Kartar a.k.a. Angela Majestroes was once an assistant to the infamous Dr. Timothy Blank.
4. Ray Marlowe, Antoine Harrison, and Dr. Marjorie Kiefer are suspended and their names are blasted across the airwaves as part of the smear campaign.
5. The heroes figure out that Celia Ko’s family is being held captive by VIPER as well.
6. The Promise tells the other heroes that Georgia is in fact her sister but that Georgia has no knowledge of this.

Issue 6

Majestroes’ home was a penthouse on the top of a sixty story building. The heroes arrived to find that Majestroes was waiting for them. The Promise and Arsenal spoke to her in her penthouse, while Pyre and Shadow Wolf stayed in her pool area. Majestroes explained to the heroes that she was no longer a mere mortal and was in fact the first angel of her lord. Her name was now Lady Abaddon and she would sit at the right hand of her lord as he destroyed this puny world and reshape it to his whim. Lady Abaddon was clearly insane. The Vindicators entered the Penthouse. Lady Abaddon teleported away and a melee between the heroes and The Vindicators ensued.

While the combat was going on Professor Zoom overheard the ruckus and joined the fray. He had heard enough to believe in the innocence of the heroes.

After a mighty battle the heroes emerged victorious but they had little time to celebrate as they knew Lady Abaddon was preparing to free her lord soon. The Promise probed their minds and found out the location of VIPER’s temporary headquarters for Project: Two Step.

Observations:
1. A mysterious sniper plagued the heroes and was not defeated with The Vindicators.
2. Arsenal stole technology from Mandroid, a member of The Vindicators.
3. Pyre and Professor Zoom saved a number of heroes and villains from falling to their death.
4. Pyre was shot in the back causing him to fall into the pool of Lady Abaddon that he was relieving himself in. Being submerged in water takes away Pyre’s powers.
5. VIPER and Lt. Sanders were unaware of the true goal of Lady Abaddon’s plan.
6. Shadow Wolf had become injured during the fight and was teleported back to The Shrine.


Issue 7

Shadow Wolf woke up in The Shrine to find himself tied up alongside Tara Lemick and Jenny Dugan. Lemick and Dugan both had explosive devices strapped to their chests. Thunderbird had managed to track the heroes back to their hideout and had looked through all their evidence. He placed a gun against Shadow Wolf’s head and asked him to explain what was going on.

Meanwhile the heroes had sent Professor Zoom to The Shrine to pick up Shadow Wolf. Zoom hearing voices coming from inside of the hideout circled around the back of it and phased through the wall. Zoom disarmed Thunderbird faster than the speed of a heartbeat and placed the gun against the vigilante’s head. Thunderbird reminded Zoom of the explosives and warned that they would detonate if tampered with. The two called a truce. Thunderbird was interested in getting back at the ones that had used him and was more than willing to help the heroes save their loved ones and the world. The heroes meet up at The Greasy Spoon. They figured out that now that Lemick is considered an escaped murderer that VIPER would not have any further need of Celia Ko. The heroes arrived in time to stop Celia Ko from bleeding to death from a VIPER assassination attempt. They capture the agents assigned to killing Ko. The Promise probed the agents brains and discovered the security protocols for the temporary headquarters. Unlike the installation that they had raided earlier the security was lighter at this site. The whole operation seemed to be a pet project for Lt. Sanders and if successful would guarantee a promotion for him. The agents did not think highly of him or the security measures.

The group decided to split into three teams, Tara Lemick and Jenny Dugan would shut down the security system, Thunderbird would insure the safety of the hostages and the heroes would stop Lady Abaddon and VIPER. All three teams successfully infiltrated the VIPER base.

The heroes made their way down to the underground facilities where Lady Abaddon was about to bring about the end of the world. While underground, Arsenal noticed that the generators were located nearby and suggested that they head there instead. The group encountered VIPER agents and a melee ensued. The heroes were able to access the generators and as Arsenal lowered the power input into all the systems, the group had to fight E-Bomb. E-Bomb inflicted much damage to the heroes and Lt. Sanders even entered the fray. Lt. Sanders was yelling at the heroes when Lady Abaddon and ripped his arm off. The battered engaged Lady Abaddon in battle. The Promise mind controlled E-Bomb to help and Jenny Dugan appeared on the scene, broadcasting everything out live. The heroes fought valiantly and pulled together for the first time as a true team and were able to barely defeat Lady Abaddon.

Observations:
1. Shadow Wolf would only allow Thunderbird to help after he had promised to restrain himself and not use any lethal attacks.
2. Arsenal had his armor ripped off of him by Lady Abaddon, whom then put her fist through his body.
3. The signal had been broadcast to free the world devourer but because of Arsenal’s intervention did not have sufficient energy to transport it to earth.
4. The Vindicators are still at large.
5. E-Bomb was teleported away by Lady Abaddon to his apparent doom. A side effect of E-Bomb’s attacking Lady Abaddon during the live broadcast is that many people believe that he might have turned over a new leaf and is trying to become a hero now.

[levi]

Sounds like great fun, thanks for posting it. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind indulging me. How much of the plot was planned out ahead of time? Is Pyre's player a jerk or is the character flawed and the examples of his jerkish behavior simply good role-playing? If you don't want to answer these questions in a public forum that your players might read, feel free to PM me through the boards.

[Chimpira]

Sounds like great fun, thanks for posting it. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind indulging me. How much of the plot was planned out ahead of time? Is Pyre's player a jerk or is the character flawed and the examples of his jerkish behavior simply good role-playing? If you don't want to answer these questions in a public forum that your players might read, feel free to PM me through the boards.

Thanks, glad that you liked it. My players never come here, so no worries there.

Most of the plot was planned out in advanced with a couple of exceptions, the frame up job for Michael Thompson was one of those. That just flowed together so well and looked to be so much in the way I wanted VIPER to operate. Plus the player that has the character of Arsenal plays him as an eighteen year old mad genius, whom makes things work too well. The media (VIPER) put a spin on all the modifications that he had made to Georgia's house as foul torture devices (they used terms like 'could be used' and let the public think that they were being used like that). He was also hunted by this corporation called Omni that he used to work for and that had raised him. They released an old halloween picture of him dressed as an evil mad genius and leaked information that Arsenal had said that the Energy Beam Doctor Destroyer had used to destroy Detroit was inefficient.

The rescue of Lady Blue, while she was in custody, was a player call but did not really effect my overall plot. In truth I was kind of happy about it. Although they had committed a crime I wanted the characters to have a chance to talk to Tara Lemick from the start. I thought after the frame up that might not happen. They never really did catch on to the Celia Ko thread until it was almost too late to save her.

When I plot out an adventure I tend to think of what I want to happen in the end. In this case I wanted something that was going to be caught on camera showing the characters as emerging heroes for Millennium City and I wanted VIPER to be involved. I took the Champions and moved them elsewhere. The game is set in the year 2001 before the return of Doctor Destroyer. From that end I moved to the beginning and thought it might be interesting to have the players avenge the death of another hero but I did not want everyone looking into it at the same time. So I came up with the reason why this was and framed Lady Blue. The rest just kind of wrote itself as I started looking for holes and how VIPER would patch them and I added the insane Lady Abaddon into the mix (well every hero wants the opportunity to save the world just once, right). The idea for a cover up from the actions of Lady Abaddon resulting in the murder of Hydro flowed together. After the cover up was in place, I looked at the weak links left open and left them open for the players to find and ran with it.

As for Pyre. (Shrug). Quite frankly he does a lot of stupid things. He is a great guy but sometimes you want to strangle his characters. He plays them all like jerks. Well, that is not true. He has just now started to play all his characters like jerks. I think he needs to work something out of his system. I hope that he will tone it down a bit now that his girlfriend is joiing the game.