Campaign: Classic Champions Universe

[Dragonfly]

Hey folks!

I'm announcing my return! While I was never a huge presence on the forums, I was a hardcore Champions player from 1982 - 2002. I then made the switch to Mutants and Masterminds. I felt bad leaving my old mistress, but Green Ronin's offerings seemed to better serve the needs of my particular group at the time.

Then Gary Gygax died, and our group suddenly turned retro. One of our GM's started a game of Basic Dungeons and Dragons in honor of the old-timer, and another is gathering his old Top Secret rules to recapture glories of old. Reliving the past has been such a blast, that I was suddenly overcome with the undeniable urge to revisit my old favorite.

Keeping with my group's "return to the eighties" mood, and taking advantage of the fact that my current players have never played in the Champions Universe, I've decided to start my campaign in 1980, and take them through updated versions of all the first-run modules.

The current line-up is:
1) VIPER's Nest
2) The Island of Doctor Destroyer
3) Deathstroke
4) The Great Supervillain Contest

Needless to say, I'll be weaving other adventures around these modules. Some of these adventures will introduce characters from the Champions rulebook (Oger, Mechanon, etc.), others will introduce characters from Enemies I and II, and others will introduce my own original villains as well as draw on the player character stories for inspiration.

Since I have the benefit of hindsight, I'd like to weave the various elements of the Champions Universe into a cohesive and organic story - sort of how the current Spider-Man cartoon (The Spectacular Spider-Man) has seeded Eddie Brock and Flint Marko into early stories, well before they become Venom and Sandman. I also like the way this new series has integrated its various subplots and villains. Osborn, for instance, is hired by the Big Man to create supervillains as a means of keeping Spidey occupied and away from his criminal operations. Finally, I figure the characters can experience at least a few villain origins first hand.

Set-Up
The characters operate out of New York. New York currently has no hero team, as the Boston based Minutemen kept the Eastern seaboard pretty well protected until their recent disappearance. Crusader and Starburst, however, have been active in New York for several years, and are considred the city's most prominent superheroes. The PCs are new heroes that have been active for a year or less. Neither the Guardians or the Champions exist in this Universe, as the Player Characters will take their place. I may, however, weave a few of these characters (or versions of them) into the campaign as secondary heroes.

The Player Characters
1) Sparrow Hawk (Rebecca Glass): Her family owns Glass Industries, which is known for its cutting-edge work in the field of robotics. Years ago, when Rebecca was very young, VIPER attempted a violent takeover of the company. They killed her parents in the attempt, but were ultimately unsuccessful. Having only recently discovered the truth behind her parents' death, Rebecca (who is currently a brilliant engineering student at a local university) has decided to useher wealth and talents to build an arsenal that will allow her to wage a one-woman war against the criminal underworld - especially VIPER. She plays alot like Nightwing or Batman, with more focus on the gadgets and less focus on the detective skills.

2) Nightshift (Dillan Price): Nightshift is a police detective who has the mutant power of teleportation. Like Sparrow Hawk, he is mostly a martial artist with a gimmick. He has a couple of basic gadgets (armor, baton), but places far more emphasis on investigative skills than he does on technology.

3) Rampart (Matt Clayborn): Rampart is a mutant who can turn to stone and grow to tremendous proportions (up to 50' in height). He needs to be standing on some sort of stone surface to effect the transformation (as well as to grow), but once the transformation is complete he need not maintain contact with a stone surface to keep the power going. He is a classic "brick" and a reluctant hero who is usually caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

4) Troyus (Troy Hallum): Troyus is a Subterralien (a race originating off-world that has maintained an underground civilization on Earth for thousands of years). He was taken from his people as an infant by an unscrupulous explorer who happens to be a member of a mysterious neo-Nazi group with plans for world domination. His new "father" tried to bring him up as a super-soldier for the organization, but Troyus broke the conditioning and escaped. He now acts as a superhero. He is a glory hound, not just because he likes the attention (which he does), but also because he figures he'll be safer if he hides in plain sight. Subterraliens radiate a type of energy that allows them to fly, project force fields, and release powerful energy beams from their eyes. They are also more durable than humans.

The First Session
The players made their characters last night and we decided to take them for a test drive. I basically decided the following: The Minutemen had their base invaded once too many times, so they contracted their friends at Glass Industries to make them a robot guardian. Needless to say, that robot is Mechanon. True to his origin, Mechanon's programming is faulty, so he attacked and captured the Minutemen and is currently holding them for experimentation. He was conducting these experiments in some decomissioned Glass Industries basement laboratories. Mechanon kept his activities secret through his mastery of the bulding's computer systems, but a bright technician by the name of Jack Stevens noticed some irregularities and decided to investigate. He discovered Mechanon, but was captured and became the first victim of Mechanon's deevolution ray. Thus, Ogre was born.

The session began on a Monday moring, with Rebecca Glass speaking to her Uncle Alec (who runs Glass Industries) and learning about Project Mechanon as well as about the disappearances of both the Minutemen and Jack Stevens. Alec Glass then received a visitor in the form of UNTIL's Major Martinez, and the two men retired to discuss the situation, leaving Rebecca to ponder matters on her own.

Shortly thereafter, Ogre burst out of the Glass Industries' basement laboratories, and went on a rampage through the city. Nightshift heard about this through police channels, while Sparrow Hawk and Troyus found out through the news media. Rampart, however, was heading home via public transportation when he saw a car hurtle over the bus he was currently sitting in, landing about 50 feet down the street. He immediately lept from the bus to engage Ogre. The other heroes eventually made it to the fight and joined the fray. Ogre put up a very good fight, despite being out-numbered, but just before the heroes could put him down, micro-rockets slammed into the brute's chest, knocking him unconcious. The heroes now faced Mechanon, who tried to retrieve Ogre. After a short fight, Mechanon managed to subdue most of the heroes and fly off with the unconscious Ogre. Sparrow Hawk and Nightshift, however, wouldn't give up. Nightshift teleported on to Ogre, while Sparrow Hawk managed to secure her swing line to the unconscious powerhouse and was pulled along.

Upon reaching a high altitude, Ogre awoke, broke out of Mechanon's entangle, and plummeted towards Earth. Sparrow Hawk used her glider-cape to safer herself and Nightshift, while Mechanon dove after Ogre. At that point UNTIL showed up on hover cycles and attacked Mechanon. Left with only 10 STUN after his fight with the heroes, Mechanon reassessed the situation and decided to flee and fight another day.

Ogre, however, crashed into the street below. He survived the fall and almost engaged Rampart again. Nightshift, however, decided to try a different tactic. He offered Ogre a drink of water, and then coaxed him into a doughnut shop. Ogre began to calm down, much to the dismay of a very aggressive UNTIL agent by the name of Hank Wadsworth (soon to become Death Commando of the Destroyers), but Major Juan Martinez showed up in a staff car and agreed to follow Nightshift's lead. They managed to subdue Ogre by feeding him mouthful upon mouthful of doughnuts dowsed in tranquilizers.

Martinez then congratulated the heroes, and informed them that there was more afoot. During the heroes' fight with Ogre, UNTIL had attempted to secure the Glass Industries basement laboratories only to find VIPER agents picking through the rubble. A shootout ensued, but the VIPER agents managed to escape under cover of smoke grenades. Martinez invited the heroes to check in with him later that day to compare notes upon a fuller invesigation.

That's where we ended it for the night.

WHAT'S NEXT?
I'll probably run the next session in a few weeks. I figure that I'll do a few more modules, and then slowly ease into VIPER's Nest. I'm thinking that UNTIL had a few big successes against VIPER in the 1970s, and that VIPER has spent several years building a strong nest in New York so that they can strike back hard. VIPER has infiltrated every aspect of the city's infrastructure, including government, the police force, the newspaper and TV media, the legal system, organized crime, labor organizations, and a few research labs. Needless to say, they also have their usual para-military operatives, and are busy trying to amass supervillain support. I still need to figure out how they will use all this power, but I want VIPER's Nest to culminate in UNTIL's last big hurrah in the states. Whether they (and the heroes) are victorious against VIPER in the weeks to come or not, I'm going to follow the timeline set forth in Champions Universe and say that 1980 is the year that the U.S. Government curtails UNTIL activity and phases in SAT and PRIMUS.

So, I wrote all of this mostly to share my enthusiasm, but I'm more than willing to listen if anybody has any cool plot ideas, or can think of interesting ways to foreshadow events in the classic Champions Universe. Also, the only early HERO material I don't own is what appeared in the Adventurer's Club magazine. I'd be keen to hear if anybody has important, classic bits from those sources that I might be able to use. Thanks for "listening!"

Excelsior!

Dragonfly

[Sketchpad]

That sounds like a pretty cool campaign Dragonfly I've always been a fan of the older material and have been using/updating characters here and there for my own campaign

[boomer]

Island of Dr. Destroyer is one of my favorite adventures......you might want to get ahold of the old PSI and Zodiac supplements. Those are great old school Villan teams with lot's of ideas for adventures.

[Sketchpad]

Island of Dr. Destroyer is one of my favorite adventures......you might want to get ahold of the old PSI and Zodiac supplements. Those are great old school Villan teams with lot's of ideas for adventures.

Mind Games (PSI) and Zodiac Conspiracy are two of my favorite books ... a few others that I always liked are To Serve and Protect, Coriolis Effect, Target Hero, Circle & METE and The Blood & Dr. McQuark.

[Dragonfly]

Hey Guys!

Thanks for the comments. Sketchpad, are you the same fellow that I know from the Mutants and Masterminds site? I'm known as Eletarmion over there (although I don't post that much anymore).

As for Zodiac Conspiracy and Mind Games: I have them and will eventually start weaving them in as well. I actually own everything for the game right through the first and second almanacs. What I don't have is any of the Adventurers Club magazines.

I'm going to spend several days asking my players to elaborate on their characters before I know for sure, but I'm thinking of doing something with Troyus and METE.

I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the Minutemen. Mechanon still has them, so I figure the next story arc will involve the heroes trying to track down and rescue them. I sort of want them out of the picture so that the PC's can become the primary superhero team on the eastern seaboard, but I don't want to brutally murder them either, as that would detract from the four color feel that I'm trying to maintain. Maybe Mechanon tested the deevolution ray on Jack Stevens and now plans to use it on the Minutemen? Maybe they'll be sufficiently shook up by the ordeal to retire afterwards? I still need to figure it all out.

I'm now thinking that Mechanon is operating with two bodies. Mechanon 1.0 is at the Minutemen's Boston headquarters, while Mechanon 2.0 was at Glass Industries. Mechanon has been operating by transfering his consciousness from body to body as the situation dictates. He was perfecting the deevolution ray at the Glass Industries lab, but is holding the Minutemen at their own headquarters. That's where the PC's will track him down to.

Just thinking out loud!

Best,

Dragonfly

[boomer]

Sounds like it's going to be an awesome campaign.....glad to see PSI and Zodiac come into play......they are really cool teams. I based my old campaign out of SF and had CLOWN paint the Golden Gate Bridge Hot Pink once as a prank.

[Legatus]

Ahhh... the 80's : that is OLD GOLD!

So you own all the old stuff, Dragonfly? Please be sure not to use European Enemies.

[CGlied]

I love the idea of a Champions reboot. Empty canvas that you can populate with the established CU as you go (with changes as needed of course).

Sounds like a lot of fun. Deathstroke was one of the first games I ever ran. Good times.

[bubba smith]

Agreed Cglied

[CoreBrute]

So...What happened? Did the campaign end, or did everyone just forget about this?

[Dragonfly]

Hey guys!

The campaign is NOT over. I've run two sessions since the first and am gearing up to run the next one in a week. I'll post the write-ups in follow-up posts. We have two new PCs involved. Here they are:

5) Firebrand (Michael Brandeis): Michael Brandeis was born in 1955 in a dumpster on the south side of Chicago and, after being discovered, was placed into the state foster care system. He was always smaller than the other kids which led to his quick wit and use of brain power rather than brawn. He learned at an early age that education was the only way out of his situation and applied himself in school resulting in a chemical engineering degree from Stanford. Always favoring the oppressed, he was attempting to create a cheap form of power which would inure to the benefit of the less privileged when he was exposed to the nuclear/chemical fire resulting in his powers. It is his belief that the “experiment gone wrong” was a result of certain underworld individuals who were trying to steal his ideas for profit. He has vowed to stamp out crime wherever he finds it as life is hard enough for the under-privileged. His professional and investigative work recently prompted him to move to New York.

6) Apex (Xander Lamberton III): Xander Lamberton III was born into wealth and privilege. Despite this, he opted for a modest life as an urban social worker, which has pretty much put him at odds with his family. Xander also happens to be a mutant with powerful telekinetic abilities that enable him to fly, lift heavy objects from a distance, and project a series of powerful attacks. The same impulse that led Xander to pursue social work has also led him to adopt the role of the superhero, Apex.

I'm stretching out VIPER's Nest, so it will probably take awhile to run through that series of modules. Indeed, aside from playing with Ogre and Mechanon's origins, I've only run "Attack of the VIPER" from Champions 3rd Edition. I then ran a homebrew module, where the heroes met Rocky Spumoni (aka Arrowhead) and a few other folks. I'm thinking of running "Assault on Tanghal Tower" next.

Anyway, as Conan said in Conan the Destroyer - "Enough talk!" Here come the module write-ups.

Best,

Dragonfly

[Dragonfly]

Issue # 2

After their battle with Mechanon and Ogre, Rampart and Troyus spent some time helping with the clean-up. While thus engaged they were approached by Apex (aka Xander Lamberton III), a hero who was drawn to the melee after Ogre rampaged through the neighborhood in which he served as a social worker. Although tending to the injured caused Apex to miss the battle, Rampart and Troyus were impressed by his willingness to help with the aftermath, so they invited him to the meeting scheduled for later that night.

Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk and Nightshift went to investigate the facility that Ogre burst out from earlier that morning. They found the area cordoned off by UNTIL agents, who were in the process of coordinating with Glass Industries representatives as well as the NYPD. Nightshift teleported to the agents and engaged UNTIL’s Sergeant-Major Evelyn Knight in conversation. Recognizing Nightshift from UNTIL’s radio-chatter, Knight explained that UNTIL arrived at the site to find a squad of VIPER agents making their way into the facility. Predictably, VIPER refused to surrender to UNTIL and a firefight broke out. Mechanon arrived on the scene in the midst of the battle, strafing the area with high powered explosives before diving into the underground facilities. By the time the UNTIL agents regained their footing, Mechanon was gone from the scene, taking some unidentified machinery with him. Using the confusion to their advantage, the VIPER agents also escaped.

Slipping past the UNTIL agents while they conversed with Nightshift, Sparrow Hawk made her way into the debris. She found the remnants of some medical technology, but her big find was the badly injured and unconscious form of Crusader, one of NYC veteran superheroes, pinned under a heavy iron beam. She called for help and, together with Nightshift and Knight, managed to get the battered hero to safety. Leaving him in the capable hands of UNTIL’s medics, Nightshift and Sparrow Hawk left the scene to compare notes.

That evening the heroes met in Central Park to discuss their next move. After becoming acquainted with Apex, they all agreed to accept Major Martinez’s invitation for a more extensive debriefing. Arriving at UNTIL HQ, they found the Major ready to receive them. Martinez explained that Ogre was still sedated and being held on the premises until arrangements could be made to safely transfer him to the proper authorities. He also explained that Mechanon was a Glass Industries creation gone rogue. Apparently, the robot had insinuated itself into the company’s computer network and had appropriated an abandoned laboratory to conduct some sort of genetic experimentation. A genetic scan of Ogre identified the brute as Jack Stevens, a Glass Industries employee that disappeared a week earlier. Present at the meeting despite several broken bones, Crusader shared that he was investigating Stevens’ disappearance when he stumbled upon Mechanon’s laboratory. The room immediately sealed and began to fill with knock-out gas, but Crusader managed to damage one of the computer consoles before passing out. Crusader offered this last bit of information with a sense of guilt, given the possibility that his actions might have caused a systems malfunction that led to the creation of Ogre.

Martinez then shifted the conversation towards his concerns over VIPER’s quick response to the incident, guessing that “the snakes” were either directly involved in what happened at Glass Industries, or that they had simply stepped up their activity in the NYC to the point where they could mobilize as quickly as the city’s first responders. Finally, Martinez shared his more immediate concerns. The Mechanon that the heroes fought was version 2.0 of the robot, which was in the final phases of construction at Glass Industries at the time of Ogre’s attack. Months earlier, version 1.0 had been given to the East Coast’s premiere superhero team, the Boston, Massachusetts based Minutemen, as a guardian for their HQ. According to Project Mechanon’s lead engineer, James Harmon IV, the Minutemen had recently reported some erratic behavior on the part of Mechanon 1.0, but nothing that would have indicated such extreme behavior. Nevertheless, the Minutemen had not been seen for almost two weeks. Although such absences occasionally occurred when the Minutemen were off on mission, Martinez suspected the worst. Unfortunately, his hands were tied. Always strained, the relationship between UNTIL and the U.S. Government had become more problematic recently. The newly inaugurated Reagan administration was threatening to prevent UNTIL from operating on U.S. soil, turning over matters of super-powered villainy and terrorism to American organizations like SAT and PRIMUS. Because UNTIL HQ was based out of the UN Building, Martinez could still get away with operating in NYC with few restrictions, but sending squads of agents to investigate the Minutemen’s public HQ in Boston, Massachusetts was out of the question. Hearing this, the heroes volunteered to go in UNTIL’s stead. Martinez provided them a lift in an unmarked UNTIL hover-transport piloted by Sergeant-Major Henry Wadsworth, and off they went.

The Minutemen’s HQ was located on the top three floors of a skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts. Wadsworth set the transport down on the rooftop landing pad, and the heroes opted to make their way to the lower levels via elevator. Sparrow Hawk bypassed the base’s security and jury-rigged the elevator to work for the heroes, but when the doors opened on the floor below they were immediately attacked by Mechanon 1.0. Rampart, Apex and Troyus engaged the robot head on, while Nightshift and Sparrow Hawk slipped away to investigate.

Teleporting into the base's medical unit, Nightshift found the minutemen floating in bio-tanks that were hooked up to a series of computer consoles. An operating table with arm and leg restraints occupied the center of the room, targeted by a ceiling mounted beam weapon of some sort. Before Nightshift could react, Mechanon 2.0 filled the room with knockout gas and the slipped into unconsciousness.

Having made her way into Minutemen HQ’s ventilation system, Sparrow Hawk watched as Mechanon 2.0 carried Nightshift to the operating table in the medical center. Slipping in undetected, she deactivated the bio-tanks, which began the process of awakening the Minutemen. Spinning to face her, Mechanon 2.0 spoke. “Your actions are illogical. You are jeopardizing the survival of the human species. Humanity in its current state presents a threat to itself as well as to the survival and independence of superior synthetic life-forms. Possible solutions, Option 1: Preserving bio-diversity offered by continued human existence while devolving the species’ more threatening characteristics. Option 2: Human extinction. You are interfering with Option 1.” It then launched a vicious attack. Sparrow Hawk expertly dodged a series of micro-rockets, but Mechanon 2.0 then turned his attention to the awakening Minutemen, opening up on their still unconscious forms with his pulse lasers. Outraged, Sparrow Hawk trained the ceiling mounted beam on Mechanon 2.0, bathing the robot in a greenish glow that seemed to have no effect. Mechanon 2.0 then lobbed a mega-bomb at Sparrow Hawk. The powerful explosive stopped an inch from her face, and then flew back towards Mechanon 2.0, knocking him down and stunning him momentarily. Quickly scanning the room, Sparrow Hawk saw that Thunderbird, the oldest of the Minutemen, had awakened just in time to deflect the bomb, but not without a cost, as the strain sent him into a fit of seizures.

At this point, Rampart, Troyus and Apex burst into the room. Having defeated Mechanon 1.0, they were keen to test their mettle against the more sophisticated version. Recovered from the knock-out gas, Nightshift also joined the fray. The heroes began to gain the upper hand after a few rounds, so Mechanon opted to flee after Rampart pounded him through the outside wall of the Minutemen HQ. Troyus and Apex gave chase and traded a few more blows with the robot, but Mechanon’s flight capabilities outmatched their own and he managed to escape.

Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk and Rampart began loading the Minutemen into the UNTIL hover-transport, while Nightshift finished searching the Minutemen HQ. To his horror, Nightshift found a large bomb with 4 seconds left on the timer. Thinking quickly, he grabbed the bomb, teleported it over the bay and teleported back with one second to spare. Still loading the Minutemen onto the transport, Sparrow Hawk and Rampart watched the fireworks from the rooftop of Minutemen HQ.

The days after the heroes’ victory over Mechanon proved sad. Thunderbird regained consciousness briefly, and was able to thank the heroes for rescuing his fellow Minutemen. His injuries, however, were too severe and the elderly hero, who had served humanity since before World War II, passed away surrounded by his friends. In the days following his death, the Minutemen decided to disband. Middle-aged and recently married, Lady Victory chose to lead a normal life for a change, while Captain Star opted continue his adventuring career as member of PRIMUS. Fleetfoot, the youngest of the Minutemen, decided to continue his career as an independent superhero in Boston. Although all the heroes involved in the rescuing the Minutemen were invited to Thunderbird’s funeral, only Rampart and Troyus attended in their heroic identities. On that day, Fleetfoot approached them and encouraged them to stay together as a team. He also gave them a communicator set to his frequency and promised to respond if they should ever need help.

[Dragonfly]

Issue 3

After their tussle with Mechanon, New York’s newest heroes agreed to keep in touch, but otherwise continued to operate relatively independently of each other. Although their newfound ally, Fleetfoot, recommended that they form a more tight-knit association, their individual styles worked against the creation of a more formal team. Nightshift and Sparrow Hawk, for instance, enjoyed the relative anonymity that came with operating in the shadows, while Troyus basked in media attention and kept a public identity to boot. Motivational differences also kept the team for cohering, as Apex and Rampart remained more focused on pursuing their private lives, fighting crime only when they happened to stumble across it or when it reared its ugly head in some sort of dramatic, public fashion.

Of all the heroes, Troyus’ life was most transformed as a consequence of their first case together. The family-owned auto-shop where he worked became the center of media attention. His boss, Joe Roberts, seemed ambivalent about the attention. Troyus’ celebrity drew some new customers, but others took their business elsewhere, apparently uneasy about Troyus’ “inhuman” nature. The shop even lost one of its mechanics, Ted Gordon. Gordon had never been friendly towards Troyus and the hero’s most recent display of power apparently pushed him over the edge. Finally, Joe also seemed worried that Troyus might attract attention of the more violent kind. Nevertheless, Joe and his sons, Josh and Seth, remained supportive of Troyus, keeping him at the shop and working to make him feel at home. About a month after the Mechanon fight, Joe decided to explain why. Inviting Troyus over to his home for dinner, he introduced the young hero to Josh’s five-year-old daughter, Sophie. Born with a tail, heightened agility, the ability to cling to walls, and heightened senses, Sophie lived a marginal existence. The Roberts, therefore, were sympathetic to Troyus’ situation, and promised to help him to the extent that they could. Grateful, Troyus promised to protect the Roberts.

That same evening, trouble was brewing downtown. Dillan Price (aka Nightshift) was having a drink at his favorite bar in Hell’s Kitchen before going out on patrol. Unbeknownst to him, Tom Clayborn (aka Rampart) was also at the bar, setting up for the gig that his band had scored for later that night. Both witnessed an exchange between Mercedes, a waitress at the bar who also happened to be Dillan’s girlfriend, and two men. One of the men, Rickey, was making lude comments to Mercedes, while simultaneously relating that her boss should follow-up on their offer for “protection.” Dillan confronted Rickey, only to have the second man, Rocky, intervene. Rocky prompted Rickey to apologize to the “nice lady,” politely requested that Mercedes relay their message, apologized to Dillan for Rickey’s transgression, and then left the bar with Rickey. Expecting trouble that night, Dillan left the bar, donned his Nightshift persona, and chose to stick close to the bar during his nightly patrol.

Later that night, Sparrow Hawk happened to be patrolling the same neighborhood as Nightshift, when she noticed two gangsters setting-up what looked like a mortar in an empty lot. She dove in and quickly subdued the men. Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk’s movements were noticed by Xander Lamberton (aka Apex), who happened to be tending to the needs of the homeless in the neighborhood. He approached to see if Sparrow Hawk needed any help, only to see mortar shells arc through the sky from other locations nearby. The shells hit a warehouse across the street, filling it with gas. Nightshift also heard the attack and teleported to the scene. When the heroes entered the warehouse, they found two groups of gangsters facing off. One group, the Maronis, suffered the effects of the mortar-delivered tear gas that choked the room. The second group, the Carelli’s, wore gas-masks, brandished laser pistols, and was in the process of mowing down their opponents. The heroes intervened, quickly taking down the Carelli’s. Inspecting the Carelli’s hardware, Sparrow Hawk noted that it bore the VIPER insignia. Checking his sources, Nightshift determined that this was likely the final battle in a months-long territorial battle between the two crime families. He also noted that the Carelli’s had recently made moves against another major crime family, the Spumonis.

The next day, at lunch time, Michael Brandeis (aka Fire Brand) was on his way to his favorite deli when he heard the sounds of gun-play and people screaming from down the street. Rushing to the scene, he saw a security guard lying prone before the broken plate-glass window of the first national bank. Rapidly changing into his hero guise, he swooped in as Fire Brand and found two VIPER agents menacing the bank’s patrons and employees. Firing two well-placed bolts of flame, he incapacitated the agents. A bank teller told the hero that other agents had moved to the vault, but before he could proceed, Fire Brand was interrupted by the arrival of New York’s premiere superhero, Starburst. After a tense moment, Fire Brand convinced Starburst that he was not there to rob the bank and the two moved towards the vault. There they encountered and easily subdued two other VIPER agents carrying bags of loot. Things became complicated when the VIPER agents received back-up in the form of super-villains Pulsar and Brick. Quite the braggart, Pulsar enthusiastically attacked Starburst hoping to earn popularity by taking down such a well-known superhero. Meanwhile, Fire Brand tussled with Brick. Pulsar, however, proved ineffective against Pulsar’s defenses and was quickly taken down. When the two heroes turned to face Brick, the rocky behemoth gabbed a bank teller by the head and threatened to turn her into tomato paste if the heroes didn’t back off. With that he grabbed Pulsar and made his escape down a manhole cover and through the sewers, taking the teller with him as insurance. The teller was later found in the sewers, shaken but otherwise unhurt.

Having heard of the attempted robbery through the news, the city’s heroes began to converge at the bank. Nightshift arrived in his civilian identity as Detective Dillan Price, along with his partner, Detective James Rourke. Troyus, Rampart, and Apex also arrived, but Sparrow Hawk was diverted by Nightshift who heard over the police radio that Vito’s, an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, had suffered an explosion simultaneous with the bank robbery. The heroes spent most of the time getting to know one another and interacting with the press. Troyus, in particular, had a few words with ace reporter, “Gyro” Jim Dugan, while Rampart and Apex exchanged contact information with Fire Brand and Pulsar. Meanwhile, Detective Rourke approached his partner with a bit of evidence: VIPER was after more than just cash. One of the bags carried by the VIPER agents contained a safety deposit box registered to a man named Carmine del Vechio. Del Vechio was a well-known and somewhat high ranking-member in the Carelli crime organization, and papers found in the safety deposit box, although vague, suggested a link between the Carelli’s and VIPER. Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk’s investigations confirmed that Carmine del Vechio had been dining at Vito’s that afternoon. Del Vechio escaped death, however, when a chance phone call caused him to leave the restaurant moments before the explosion.

The heroes dispersed after the bank robbery, returning to their lives and work. For Dillan and Rourke, however, this meant following-up on Del Vechio. They went to the gangster’s home, only to find one of his henchmen, Angelo Demeo, leaving the premises with a suitcase. Demeo claimed that Del Vechio had left town. Unconvinced, Dillan and Rourke decided to follow the gangster. This led them to an apartment building in Brooklyn. Dillan related this information to Sparrow Hawk, who was still in the area, before he and Rourke split up and entered the building through different entrances. Dillan managed to catch-up to Demeo as the gangster was let into a third-floor apartment. To his surprise, the man who opened the door for Demeo was non-other than Rocky from the night before! Dillan then teleported to the fire escape adjoining Rocky’s apartment, leaving Rourke to watch the hall entrance.

Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk arrived at the scene on her motorcycle. As she pulled up, she saw a black van conspicuously parked in an alley next to the apartment building. Stepping out of the van and into the apartment building was a man wearing maroon and orange colored armor, with a brass flamethrower strapped to his back. She radioed in a warning to Nightshift and an alert to Troyus, Rampart, Apex, Fire Brand, and Starburst. Sneaking up to the van, Sparrow Hawk then encountered and made quick work of two VIPER agents. Responding to Sparrow Hawk’s warning, Dillan teleported to the rooftop and changed into his Nightshift costume. By the time he returned to the fire escape, however, all chaos had broken out. Catching sight of Blowtorch, Rouke opened fire, only to have his bullets bounce off the hit man’s armor. Ignoring Rourke, Blowtorch kicked down the door to Rocky’s apartment and filled the room with a stream of chemical fire. The attack killed Demeo and Del Vechio. Rocky grabbed Ricky and ran for the window, only to receive a blast from Blowtorch as he leapt through. Rocky seemed relatively unharmed by the flame, so Nightshift attacked the gangster as he emerged to the fire escape, knocking him down three stories. Rocky managed to execute a relatively controlled fall, shielding Ricky from harm. It was then that Nightshift noticed a purple and red skin-tight costume showing through the gangster’s burned clothing. Throwing Rickey over his shoulder, Rocky ran down the alley as Nightshift was forced to turn and face Blowtorch.

At that point, the rest of the heroes arrived. Sparrow Hawk entangled Rocky with a bola, allowing the rest of the heroes to pile on, while Nightshift threw Blowtorch into the alley below. The heroes quickly subdued Blowtorch, and then delivered a series of blows that brought Rocky to his knees. Rickey began to yell for Rocky to get up and knock the heroes senseless, but the resilient gangster chose diplomacy instead. Rising to his feet, he suggested to the heroes that there was some misunderstanding. Rocky pointed out that he hadn’t broken any laws. He then explained that as a longtime member of the Carelli crime family, Del Vechio came to disagree with the family’s new association with outside parties. This disagreement led to mounting tensions. Fearing for his life, Del Vechio turned to Rocky for protection, but sadly the Carelli’s managed to terminate the old man’s life before the contract could be finalized. Rocky insisted that his actions regarding this incident were as noble as the heroes own. Fire Brand whispered to Nightshift that he recognized Rocky as an enforcer from the Chicago branch of the Spumoni crime family. Unable to find evidence implicating Rocky in wrong-doing, however, the heroes reluctantly let him and Rickey go.

That night the heroes met at Central Park. The heroes speculated as the precise nature of the relationship between the Carelli’s and VIPER. Sparrow Hawk related that the communicators carried by the VIPER agents had self-destructed upon their capture, thus making it impossible for her to track the snakes back to their nest. She also suggested that Central Park was not the best place for them to meet, giving them an address for a riverside warehouse that could serve as a more discrete meeting place. Following through with her call for subtlety, Nightshift critiqued the others, especially Troyus, for drawing unnecessary attention from the media. Troyus defended his actions, pointing out that he hadn’t revealed anything that would endanger anybody but himself. Rampart also chimed in, suggesting that the more public heroes drew attention away from the more subtle ones. With these issues unresolved, Apex turned the conversation towards further investigation of VIPER, suggesting that the team might try to infiltrate the organization. Starburst wished them luck, offering to help where he could, but stating his preference to operate solo. With that he excused himself, leaving the others to consider their next moves.

[Dragonfly]

Well, that's it so far. Let me know what you all think. I'd love to get feedback and even suggestions on where to take this.

Best,

Dragonfly

[Mr. R]

I liked that Brick took the teller but left her unharmed. This sets a tone for the game. You are stating that some villains are honorable and can be trusted. This opens the door to negotiation as a possible solution. Cudos.