Marvel-based Champions Game
Below is an account of the one-shot Champions game I ran for our group last night. The GM of the current Fantasy Hero campaign (Eosin) got boned on his work schedule so he had to cancel. I ran a Marvel Universe-based Champions game so we didn’t have to cancel our bi-monthly game.
The game was a Champions conversion of a MSH adventure “Hidden Enemy” that can be downloaded here: Hidden Enemy
The character's we used were: Captain America (Audie), Daredevil (Randy), Beast (Kevin) and Archangel (Myron). Kind of a weird combo but it was just a one-shot game.
The game started with the characters all in Central Park (NYC), just after dark, for various reasons. Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil) was returning to his apartment after a late evening's work. Captain America was walking in the park since he was board and figured his presence would be a crime deterrent to the local mugger population. Beast (aka Hank McCoy) and Warren Worthington III (aka Archangel) were heading to their hotel after an unsuccessful double date. For tonight the Beast/Archangel combo was known as the Blue Man Crew.
The walk home was interrupted when the characters began seeing (and hearing) lasers being fired in the distance, near one of the scenic ponds. Cap & Daredevil arrived at about the same time from the south that Beast & Archangel arrived from the north. They witnessed Doctor Strange rising in flight from just beyond a copse of trees, only to seemingly pass-out and crash onto the ground between the two groups. At about that same time a group of HYDRA agents began to emerge from the trees, obviously intent on finishing off the unconscious mystic.
The heroes immediately swooped in to the rescue. The civilians present hesitated uncertain what to do. Here was danger but here too was a chance to see Captain America (a crowd favorite) in action. Cap wisely used a presence attack upon the crowd to convince them to run for safety.
Upon seeing these new threats closing from both sides, and realizing that the unconscious Doctor Strange wasn't going anywhere, the HYDRA agents opened fire on the heroes with their laser rifles. These were not ordinary HYDRA agents. This was a group of twelve elite commandos, wearing assault armor and equipped with cutting edge weaponry. At first luck went with the agents as a luck shot inflicted a significant injury to Daredevil's left arm. HYDRA's tactics and the agents extensive Martial Arts training (Martial Dodge) allowed them to take no damage in the first Phase of combat.
However, the four heroes were just too much for a dozen HYDRA agents to handle. Over the next turn of combat the agents were all incapacitated and captured. We discovered that Cap is basically invincible with that shield of his. He, for the most part, assumed the roll of a walking deflector shield. Anytime an agent had a decent shot at a fellow hero or some civilians got caught in the line of fire, a skillful shield toss would deflect the beam away.
Daredevil had a hard time pummeling the agents through their thick assault armor; it usually took him two blows to KO an agent. Beast was pretty much in the same boat. However the martial skills of both were such that they usually could pull off a double attack of some sort. Beast kept throwing agents into other agents and Daredevil would do multiple Pass-by attacks with his martial arts. When Cap went offensive he was brutal and no agent could hope to stand up to a bash from that shield of his, each blow would crumple one or more.
Archangel proved to be the real horror for the agents. His speed and maneuverability, coupled with the auto-firing NND wing darts, probably brought more HYDRA thugs low than anybody.
Near the end of the battle there was a little unpleasantness when Cap realized that the one civilian who had not run was a man who had recently appeared on the wanted posters at the local post office. He was a mafia hit man named Enrico. Cap confronted him and he tried to pull a gun. Enrico is now in the hospital ward of the NYC jail with a broken shoulder.
The battle also flushed out a local flasher. The group wisely unleashed the NYPD on him. I had hoped to get a paparazzi photo of Captain America dragging in a half-naked old man, but the players were too smart to fall for it.
Doctor Strange, who was returning to consciousness, was taken by the heroes to his brownstone where Wong took charge of treating him and even used some of his arcane medicinal skills to enact a quick cure on Daredevil's injured arm. Dr. Strange, who had become conscious at this point, thanked the characters for coming to his aid. He asked them to return and talk with him tomorrow, confident that Wong's care would have him back on his feet by then.
Examination of the HYDRA equipment revealed that the guns they had were extremely advanced. In fact thought they were definitely constructed of contemporary materials, the design was beyond anything that anybody was currently using. Even Dr. Doom would be hard pressed to design such a weapon. In addition each of the agent's had a softball-sized device on their armor whose immediate function was hard to determine. Hank McCoy surmised (correctly) that it seemed to be an aerosol sprayer of some sort; he took one for study at a local lab he had access to.
Nick Fury, SHIELD and Captain America interrogated the captured agents and found out some interesting details:
1) The entrance to their hidden base was inside a farmhouse about 100 miles west of the city.
2) About two months ago Baron Von Strucker himself had shown-up at their, minor, base and taken personal charge. Apparently he executed the former base commander for withholding information from him.
3) Since his arrival the base had been under a total communications blackout.
4) Since his arrival Strucker had preached how Steven Strange was the greatest enemy and threat that HYDRA had ever faced.
5) Baron Strucker himself had designed the fantastic weapons that the team had used. This surprised the agents (and Cap and SHIELD) since Strucker has never been know as an inventor or engineer.
6) Nick informed Cap that SHIELD had been aware of this minor HYDRA base and had been keeping watch on it hoping it would lead them to a bigger base. The SHIELD stakeout had detected no indication of the arrival of Von Strucker. SHIELD's most current Intel indicated that Strucker was currently in Asia.
Hank McCoy's examination of the aerosol dispenser finally revealed that it was designed to spread its chemical compound over a wide area. (Each produced an AE 10" radius; with 12 agents you cover a lot of ground that way). The chemical compound was designed to hinder synaptic activity, making the victim incoherent. Most fascinating of all, the chemical was genetically engineered to affect only one specific person on the planet (obviously Steven Strange). The tech required to produce this was beyond anything that McCoy had ever seen.
The next day the group returned to the brownstone of Steven Strange.
Dr. Strange was at a loss as to why “these terrorists” would be after him. Other than is, rare, occasional aid to their arch-nemesis (SHIELD & Nick Fury), he could fathom no reason for the attack. In an effort to determine the motivation Dr. Strange had determined to track down HYDRA’s master and mystically pick the information from his mind. That morning he had invoked “the Spell of Detection” in an effort to locate that leader, Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker. To his amazement his magic told him that there were currently two living, breathing, thinking beings beings known as Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, both physically identical. One was currently located in Hong Kong and the other was located 100 miles west of NYC. No doubt the one west of the city was at the HYDRA base the group had learned of.
Dr. Strange proposed that his astral self would travel to Hong Kong and investigate the Strucker there. If that Strucker turned out to be the one responsible, Strange would summon the characters and together they would deal with the foe. At the same time the characters could investigate the HYDRA base and Strucker west of the City. If the Hong Kong Strucker turned out to be a dead end, Strange would join them at the HYDRA base. The group agreed with this plan and things soon were set in motion.
An hour’s stealthful observation of the farmhouse indicated that two or three men were staying in the house and one would walk the grounds (yard, barn, etc.) every 10 or 15 minutes. No one seemed to be present other than these few men. The team quietly approached the house and surprised the three HYDRA agents inside, quickly rendering them unconscious. A search of the house found a hidden lift underneath the refrigerator. The group took the lift down, and found a corridor leading to the underground base.
A pair of guards at the end of the corridor became aware of the heroes at about the same time a hale of wing darts, a flung shield and a billy club found them. They were quickly silenced before the alarm could be raised. It was quickly determined that the entry to the base had no significant security system, a sure sign that this was indeed a minor facility. Creeping down the hallway the group decided to enter the room with the barracks sign on the door. They, correctly, deduced that the lion’s share of HYDRA agents could be found here, unprepared for combat. In a mere three phases of combat the twenty-odd agents were thoroughly beaten. The only exception was the one agent in the corner who was presence attacked with such effect that he dropped sniveling to the ground begging to not be beaten up.
The scattered few agents who were left in the base were quickly ferreted out and rendered combat ineffective. Baron Von Strucker’s quarters were located and the few conscious HYDRA agents remaining all indicated that the Baron was still in there. In-fact they all claimed that he spent nearly all of his time isolated in his quarters.
Daredevil’s super-human hearing detected a sound dead-zone beyond the door. Not even normal background noise seemed to be present beyond the portal. No light was visible around the cracks of the doorframe either. The characters had no trouble opening the door and found inky blackness beyond. Daredevil entered first since darkness would be no hindrance to him. He vanished immediately into the field of darkness that the team now realized that light would not penetrate. Daredevil could no longer be heard and did not respond to their whispered pleas for information. Fearing for their friend the rest of the heroes quickly followed his path.
A swirling kaleidoscope of lights assailed the sighted heroes as they entered the darkness. Multiple places and times seemed to flash before their vision (I sure Daredevil heard some interesting things as well). For a brief time dinosaurs, Vikings, geometric shapes and futuristic cities co-existed in their presence all swiftly passing around in a blur. Slowly the surrounding solidified and they were on a platform, in a room unlike what they would have expected from Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker.
They were in a large room filled with numerous unknown technological gadgets. It looked to be something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie. Unrecognizable machines and gismos lined the walls. Sitting at a desk, in a large silver chair, about 25 feet away was a bald man in a green uniform unlike any HYDRA agent they had ever seen. A glow was surrounding the heroes and they now realized that they were frozen and unable to do anything but watch and listen.
The mysterious man was holding a large silver gun pointed at the heroes as he began to speak:
“You fools seem puzzled,” he croaked. Then his face brightened. “Of course! You were expecting someone else!” He touched a finger to his right hand, glows for a moment and then assumes the form of Baron Strucker. “Is this more to your liking,” he asked before breaking off into laughter.
The heroes, finding themselves able to at least talk asked the maniacal stranger who he was and what he was doing. Seeming greatly amused he goes into the traditional evil mastermind speech (Which I have excerpted directly from the adventure mentioned above).
“I am Yandroth, the Scientist Supreme. I come from the farthest reaches of the universe, where a multitude of worlds fell before my unmatched intellect! My robots, my genetically engineered diseases, even the minor weapons I gave to my slaves and followers; all were superior to anything that ever existed before! By all rights I should be a happy emperor, watching with pleasure as world after world falls to me! But that is not so, because of the fiend called Doctor Strange that your world birthed!
“He came to my world in search of an Earthling called Victoria Bentley, a woman of such beauty that her appearance earned her the right to be my bride. But Strange dared to try and take my bride-to-be away, before she could realize the honor being offered to her. His arcane knowledge clashed with my scientific marvels, and our battle took us to the Dimension of Dreams, where anything created by the sleeping mind becomes reality. Through trickery Strange defeated me, and I became one with the Dimension of Dreams, unable to escape.
“After an indefinable amount of time I found myself here, on Earth. The commander of this base had secretly been building a dimensional teleporter, to prove it could be done. He somehow attuned to me and drew me to this world. I quickly subdued him and interrogated him, and he told me enough to get by on this primitive world. I disposed of him once he became worthless to me, and with the aid of my amazing technology I assumed the form of Baron Strucker, allows me to rule the fools in this complex. And you have arrived in time to witness the conquest of your world!
My Time Warp device holds you out of sync with regular time. I would have used such a device to conquer your world as soon as I arrived, but your technology is so agonizingly primitive compared to what I possessed on my worlds that I have only just perfected it. Within the hour it will build to full power, at which point I can render the entire world as powerless as you, and I and my Hydra dupes shall make this world mine!”
Once he finished his tirade Yandroth returns to calibrating his machine and ignored the characters. All their attempts to breakout of the stasis field were futile. However within a few minutes the room is bathed in a crimson glow, which causes Yandroth to look up in panic from what he is doing. A shadow then forms in the center of the room from which emerges Doctor Strange.
Dr. Strange is still pale from the recent attempt on his life and his health looks even worse now as he is covered with numerous small cuts and bruises. “I would have been here sooner,” he explains, “but I encountered a nest of demons in Hong Kong which had to be stopped.” He looks upon Yandroth and says, “Are you the being who would dare to try and take the life of the Sorcerer Supreme?” Yandroth shakes with fury, shouting, “Strange, it is I, Yandroth the Scientist Supreme! I will destroy you as revenge for my defeat at your hands!” Strange looks puzzled for a moment before recognition dawns on him. “Yandroth? I had forgotten about you! I see your exile to the Dimension of Dreams has done nothing to diminish your lust for conquest.”
In response Yandroth adjusts the controls on his machinery, and a field of temporal energy surrounds Strange. Strange responds with his magics, and a colorful display of light assails the senses of the heroes. Slowly but surely the weakened Dr. Strange is overcome by the field. However, Yandroth is forced to divert enough energy against him that the field holding the players is weakened and fails. Now free the players go into an all out assault.
It quickly becomes evident that Yandroth, the “Scientist Supreme” is just that, a scientist and not a fighter. Despite his force field belt and fancy weapons he is no match for the heroes and is quick over come. Doctor Strange is freed and, within a few minutes, has recovered enough to survey the situation. The dimensional rift, which is this room is a danger to earth’s dimension. A weak point, which could be exploited by extra-dimensional terrors. Summoning up his magic Dr. Strange seals up the rift and Yandroth is once again banished to the dimension of dreams.
All in all I think everybody had a good time. I can recommend this excellent adventure originally written by Ralph Dula.
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Originally Posted by Killer Shrike
Re: Marvel-based Champions Game
Being Earth's Sorcerer Supreme and being able to battle the likes of Mephisto requires some hefty magic.
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