CotN Outtakes

[Epiphanis]

Just wanted to insert something ... Augury is one of the most GM-useful NPCs in the published materials. An opponent who can shock you with traumatic visions of horrible things to come? There are just so many ways to play with that plot device to foreshadow things you have planned and drop potentially misleading clues to point PCs in the direction you want them to go!

[TheQuestionMan]

I look forword to it Scott.

I wish I could find a Printer to make hard copies of all my pdf books though.

QM

[GestaltBennie]

I'm not too crazy about Mythic Heroes, but I'd jump on a 6e version of Champions of the North in a heartbeat. A heartbeat, I say!

Also Kingdom of Champions, Champions of the Rising Sun, or, for that matter, Champions of the Dharma-Wheel, Champions Down Under, Champions of the Motherland, Champions of the Faith.... Is there a pattern? I believe there is!

I appreciate the vote of confidence, howvever I'm looking forward to MYTHIC HERO an awful lot.

[GestaltBennie]

Starforce
The disbanding of the third Canadian Guard was a serious blow to the nation's fight against superhuman crime, and almost immediately people called for the Canadian government to recruit replacements. In the meantime, Toronto's growth and wealth made it an increasing target for supervillains and agencies like VIPER, and the city council began to look at recruiting veteran heroes to defend it. In June 2000, the floodgates opened when Dr. Destroyer launched an invasion of the city. "Dr. Destroyer" turned out to be Magnus Aignur, a technician who had worked for Albert Zerstoiten and who cobbled together a new Destroyer armor from the original's discarded suits; the invasion itself was a cover by Argent to soften up Toronto area high tech firms (most notably Burrell Industries and Doerksen Tech) for hostile takeovers.

This naturally brought down the wrath of Lyle Doerksen, the third and most successful Forceknight. He was especially angered that Justiciar's company was being targeted while David Burrell languished in suspended animation. Joined by Trumpeter (the last member to join the Northern Guard) and a local hero named Lakehead, the impromptu team opposed Aignur's invasion, soon aided by the cosmic might of Celestar. Quickly, the four heroes subdued Aignur and exposed Argent's involvement.

After the dust settled, Forceknight proposed the formation of a new team with a more local mandate than the Guard, in part to focus on Toronto's situation, but also to avoid triggering the Land's prophecy of doom that had led to the earlier team's dismantling. In March 2000, Starforce, itself a blend of Celestar and Forceknight's names, was born. Celestar brought a huge monolith down from the asteroid belt, landed it in Toronto harbour and shaped it into the Ironberg, the team's HQ. For years after, many villains would see the daunting, ugly structure as a challenge and attempt to blow the Ironberg off the map, but none succeeded. Justiciar's ward Circ and Forceknight developed the team AI, Kivioq, which became an unofficial member, the one constant in every incarnation of "the Force".

The remainder of 2000 was spent in an epic battle against VIPER whose Toronto nest, led by a mutant named Ms. Snake, was one of the world's most ruthless. It was a bitter and bloody conflict: VIPER struck at everything from politicians to banks to large crowds of innocents. They even to took the battle to the member's families -- Forceknight came within a hair of losing his wife and young son to a team of VIPER assassins. The vendetta climaxed in an epic battle between Celestar and Viperia over Lake Ontario where Celestar managed to drive Viperia away, but was badly wounded. Lakehead prevented Ms. Snake from detonating a series of bombs planted across the city, but sacrificed his powers to do so.

With VIPER beaten, it seemed like the major threats to the city were under control. Celestar withdrew for some badly needed healing, while Forceknight retired to be with his family. However, Trumpeter lobbied on the need for a strong Toronto-based team, and a nervous city council backed her opinion.

Potenstorm
With the help of a "superhuman consultant", Celestar and Forceknight began to put together a new team. By March 2001, Trumpeter was joined by the heroes Hyperknight, Canadian Anthem, and the CN Tower. Forceknight strongly wanted Trumpeter to lead, however she had never gotten along with Celestar, and the veteran hero vetoed the appointment. Trumpeter responded by quitting the team. Celestar, at UNTIL's recommendation, recruited a very powerful but untested Swedish superhero named Potenstorm. His first mission with the team, an attack against the creations of Teleios, put the team into conflict with the Justice Squadron. This misunderstanding was, perhaps, a sign of things to come.

Potenstorm was a nice guy, however he seemed tentative, often putting the safety of the team ahead of the mission. Two situations where the team premptively pulled out of a dangerous situation were caught on film, first during a movie shoot invaded by a new villain team called the Forces of Nature, second during a fight with Firewing at the CN Tower, where Firewing left his mark, literally, on the city, after Potenstorm ran from the fight.

To make matters worse, the new Toronto VIPER commander, Darien Defoe, was a master at manipulating the media. Soon the local press was painting the new Starforce as a failed team; in particular Potenstorm was the subject of intense criticism, lacking the "toughness" and "resolve" of native Canadian heroes. This coincided in a major VIPER PR offensive against superhuman failires in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy, but was far more effective than most, especially after Canadian Anthem was killed by Baron Nihil and revealed to be the estranged teenage son of a local Member of Parliament. Potenstorm was widely blamed.

A number of Canadian supers came to the Swede's defense, but it was not enough. At the end of 2001, Potenstorm quit the team, angrily returning to Sweden.[1]

Days of Thunder
The Toronto city council insisted on continuing with the Guard. Celestar, who had become close to Potenstorm, walked away from the team. Forceknight recruited Craig Carson, his old friend Thundrax from the Northern Guard, to head the team, rebuild it, and improve its relations with the city.

Almost immediately he ran into problems. The media that had attacked Potenstorm went after Thundrax with equal vigor, dragging up some disparaging remarks that he had made about the city when he was a teenager, and the media pegged him as a hostile guy from the west coast who didn't care about Toronto. In addition to the PR problems. was Thundrax's lack of command experience: Craig had been part of four teams but had never been a team leader and his transition into a command role was very difficult. Thundrax asked Potenstorm to remain on the team and assist with the transition, but his suggestion was rejected with scorn. Hyperknight accepted a lucrative offer to join ACI and left the team and Canada behind.[2] Craig recruited several replacements, so by April 2002 the team's roster was Thundrax, Surfacer, Fire Maiden, Trumpeter (who had returned at her friend's behest), and the CN Tower (the only member of Potenstorm's team to survive the transition). It was hardly the most powerful incarnation of the Guard, and the press never let them forget it.

Nonetheless Thundrax and Starforce eventually found their footing. In May 2002, after losing a brutal battle with the Forces of Nature, they regrouped and defeated them soundly, garnering positive press for the team for the first time in nearly eighteen months. They exposed several members of VIPER in the press and the mayor's office, and fought the terrorist group CanadaFirst!, who were targeting judges that supported Canada's liberal immigration policy.

Unfortunately in October, tragedy once again struck the team. The CN Tower became embroiled in a family feud against his mutant brother, the empathic parasite Dr. Babylon. Dr. Babylon had retreated to an American asylum and was using it to host his Insanity Engine, which he hoped would drive the entire planet insane. The team pursued the AWOL Tower, but it was too late -- the Tower was dead. Brother had already slain brother. Worse, the team was driven berserk by the Engine, and for the first time in his career, Thundrax took a human life, ripping apart rioting inmates with his bare hands. Fortunately, Trumpeter managed to retain her sanity long enough to destroy the Engine. and with that, Babylon's threat was over. It was the greatest victory that Starforce had ever achieved, but with a dead team member and innocent blood on its hands, they felt anything but victorious.

At Forceknight's recommendation, the somewhat clueless Edmonton hero Polar Bear joined the Force. He didn't get much of a chance to acclamatize himself: at the Tower's funeral, the eccentric time travelling villain Captain Chronos, whose temporal technology had been stolen by Baron Nihil, appeared out of nowhere and kidnapped the team. Chronos claimed that Nihil planned to undo six key events in Canadian history in the Battle for the Soul of Canada. If any of them became undone, it could devastate the True North. Thus began Starforce's great time travelling adventure. After a series of escapades which included an encounter with Louis Riel in 1870, the founding of the original Hunter-Patriots in 1838, and the most important hockey game in history in 1972, the team found themselves in a Dartmouth Nova Scotia hospital in 1960, where they protected Alice Burrell as she gave birth to her son David, the future Justiciar. On the final adventure, they were joined by Justiciar himself, who had just woken from hibernation and had been taken back in time by Chronos to aid them. In the end, Nihil's Time Destroyer was no more, Chronos had recovered his technology, and Starforce was back in Toronto after only a two month absence.

The press heralded the return of Justiciar as the return of legitimacy to Staforce, and pushed for him to take over the leadership role. David refused to oblige them, however the issue was soon forced for him. Firewing returned to attack Toronto again, but this time the team did not back down. In the end, while the rest of Starforce lay unconscious, Thundrax bore the brunt of the alien titan's onslaught, a brutal assault that was captured on camera where he refused to quit despite gruesome injuries. Impressed, Firewing did not finish the huge Vancouverite as he lay on the ground in a charred, bloody heap; instead, as a gesture of respect, he seared Starforce's emblem into the side of the CN Tower before departing. The team's bravery was universally hailed, and Starforce's reputation was restored. Thundrax went on medical leave to nurse his injuries, but in actual fact that was just an excuse to transfer the leadership reins to Justiciar, his friend and formal pupil, whom Craig had always believed would lead his generation of Canadian heroes. As for Thundrax, Torontonians embraced him for the first time in his career, and he would remain one of the nation's most popular heroes even as he withdrew from the superhuman stage.

And Justiciar For All
It didn't take long for Justiciar to settle into the role of leader. His first adventure involved a visit from Gravitar to Toronto, as she attempted to hold "HenchCon" to draft elite level henchmen into her service. Gravitar was to be the first of several high level villains to test the resolve of the new Starforce. In addition, they also defeated Darien Defoe and took apart Toronto's VIPER's Nest, again. It would be years before the snakes would attain a strong presence in Toronto again.

Thundrax retired for a career in politics, while Surfacer and Fire Maiden got married and returned to Halifax, and Trumpeter accepted an appointment with JTF-X. To fill the vacuum, Justiciar began looking for replacements. A tip from the Toronto PD put him in touch with Prism Girl, a superhuman created by Dr. Nafar, a VIPER mad scientist who had been Darien Defoe's chief lieutenant. A failed Hunter-Patriot assassination attempt netted the team Dust Devil, a huge (and obnoxious) genetically engineered brickhouse. Justiciar found a reference buried in an RCMP report that led the team to Argosy, a very odd Newfoundland telepath.

Together these four heroes faced down many threats, including an outbreak of Teleios-engineered mutant monsters; an IHA plan to outlaw superheroes from Toronto that was spearheaded by the Canadian Anthem's embittered father; the Babble, a creature from the higher planes that ate people's capacity for language, an apocalyptic Dr. Destroyer worshipping cult cultivated by Rakshasa, an attempt by Paris Vandeleur to infiltrate Canada's first nations community and anger the spirits into a war against humanity (which ended with Adrian Vandeleur stripping him of his mystical abilities and banishing him from the family). On this last adventure, another odd hero joined the 'Force: the Constable, who had been assigned the Vandeleur case by the Toronto PD.

By the time the Constable joined in 2007, the team's reputation and stature were at its apex. Justiciar was easily the most popular and respected hero in the nation, and one of the most highly regarded in the world. Torontonians looked to their defenders with unabashed admiration and pride.

A New Arrangement
In 2009, things changed. A violent storm near Force Station Steelhead in Nunavut was the precursor to the liberation of Kigatilik. Recognizing Kigatilik's return as the greatest threat in the nation's history, the team got together with Ravenspeaker, Celestar, Le Fort and the newest incarnation of Forceknight; together they crafted a plan for the defense of Canada. Starforce was split into two divisions: Starforce North and Starforce South. Justiciar and the Constable (along with Celestar and Ravenspeaker) were stationed in the north, while Dust Devil led Prism Girl and Argosy in defending the south, joined unofficially by Forceknight V.

The arrangement began to unravel in late 2011, when a Roin'esh incursion set the stage for the unlikeliest of comebacks: the villain who gave Justiciar his cybersystems, the long-dead Cyberlord. His return has shaken David Burrell and Circ to their cores, and Starforce's leader has expressed doubt about his leadership abilities for the first time in his career. Furthermore, the never especially stable Argosy has become increasingly more unstable over the last yeae; he'll probably be forced to leave the team in the very near future -- one way or another.

At this point, it looks extremely likely that Forceknight V will officially join the team and be groomed to eventually replace Dust Devil as the southern leader (there's talk of establishing a Starforce West team in Calgary with Dust Devil as leader) while finding one or two new members to replace Argosy. The next few years should be very interesting for "the 'Force"

Footnotes
[1]Potenstorm is still a superhero in Sweden, however his career has never recovered from the humiliation he suffered in Starforce.
[2]Hyperknight served as an ACI spokesman for years, and was for a time Franklin Stone's bodyguard, until he succumbed to cancer in 2010.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Wait. An ugly structure in the Toronto harbour area? Have they considered burying it and extending it down to Hamilton?

On a more serious note, Scott, I love your tribute to Toronto. I just wish that you had time and space to do this for Vancouver.

[GestaltBennie]

Wait. An ugly structure in the Toronto harbour area? Have they considered burying it and extending it down to Hamilton?

On a more serious note, Scott, I love your tribute to Toronto. I just wish that you had time and space to do this for Vancouver.

I'll likely do SUNDER at some point, as I actually have the 25 year old campaign writeups for some of the sessions, and that will be the love letter to Vancouver.

[GestaltBennie]

A history of SUNDER, the Vancouver-based superteam of the 1980s. This team was our major campaign in the 1980s: the following history combines events from the campaign and massages them a little to fit the current Champions Universe world.

SUNDER
In the early 1980s, with the rise of VIPER in the port city of Vancouver, UNTIL targeted the area for special attention. However, the local VIPER Nest, led by the mysterious Serpent-X, proved intractable, and they waged a counter offensive featuring a number of supervillains. More insidious were efforts by a group called the Brotherhood of Terror led by a psychotic mutant named Black Spectre to terrorize Vancouver while placing an operative named Masquerade into a position of political power.

To battle these menaces, UNTIL teamed with the RCMP to assemble the Superhuman United Nations Defense Emergency Reserve (SUNDER). The initial team was a collection of oddballs: the leader was a psionic gumshoe from San Francisco named Shamus, who never really explained why he took the job. Even more controversial was his lieutenant Avenger, a decades old mutant (he was active as a pulp adventurer in the 1930s) who had only a few years earlier been the vigilante Night Stalker. Rounding out the team was the temperamental and egotistical cold-powered mutant Cryo, a studious mining engineer in a magnetic battlesuit named Flux, the brash Solar Sentinel (formerly Canadian astronaut Greg Jenkins), a boisterous earth elemental named Elemmus, and George, a physicist with gadgets who resisted any attempt to give him a codename (the press settled on "Vulcan"). They were soon joined by Thundrax, a teenager who could shift his mind into a superhuman body worthy of a god.

The team's initial campaign defeated VIPER and unmasked Serpent-X as Richard Xavier, a local entrepreneur who was using VIPER as a way to get an edge on the competition. The snakes were beaten, though other incarnations of VIPER rose up in Vancouver over the years, including one led by Avenger's enemy She-Devil, and another run by the evil demonic spirit Black Dragon, an agent of the Death Dragon.

The Brotherhood was a far more serious matter, especially when it was joined by Avenger's sadistic father Master-Mind, who became co-leader with Black Spectre. Masquerade, in the guise of William Donaldson, became mayor of Vancouver, and engaged in a war to smear SUNDER in the press and ban them from the city. However, with help from the veteran hero Acrobat, and (more dubiously) from the super thief Dark Prowler, SUNDER exposed Donaldson, and the Brotherhood fell apart, the huge villain team dividing into four relatively impotent factions that spent as much time warring against each other as terrorizing society and eventually dissipated or were captured.

These two were far from the only villains SUNDER faced. PLUNDER, a team of superthieves (led by the shape-changer Sleeper) also plagued the team, though they were more interested in loot than power. The international mastermind known as "the Colonel" often embroiled SUNDER in his crimes, though SUNDER always foiled his plots, time and again he managed to elude capture. A group of anti-mutant terrorists, the Human League, were also fierce enemies; as Shamus, Avenger, and Cryo were all prominent mutants. Led by Cull and his remote controlled Genobots[1], the Human League plagued SUNDER throughout their incarnation as they attempted to control "undesirable human evolution."

SUNDER also faced a band of western Canadian separatists, foiled their schemes, confiscated their technology, and turned to other matters. Little did they suspect that this "negligible" underground group would become the nucleus for the Hunter-Patriots, one of the most significant terrorist threats of the modern era.

These menaces were not trivial, but they paled in comparison with the Brotherhood and SUNDER's two other archenemies. The first was Borealis, the self-appointed messiah of the True North. Empowered by the great Land spirit, Borealis saw his duty as the conquest of Canada, which would then become the core of a New World Order. They crossed swords several times. starting in 1986, when Borealis tried to use Vancouver's World's Fair as a platform for his plans. Borealis envisioned a Canada that would run the world in accordance with principles of compassion and justice, and saw the ends as justifying his means. Despite being enemies. Borealis did more than just fight SUNDER, he challenged them to use their powers to benefit society in ways that went beyond throwing punches. Eventually Flux teamed up with Elemmus to form a mining and oil company, using earth elementals (Elemmus's family) to scout for deep deposits, which were then surgically extracted by Flux's technology. The profits were then channelled into the Carson Foundation, which Thundrax set up in 1987. Recent expansion into the areas of green technology and space development has made Flux-Carson Enterprises a leading Canadian energy company and a significant player in the mining and petroleum industry.

The other major enemy was the demon-god Asmiak, who hungered after Shamus's soul for reasons that are not understood to this day. Because of Shamus's efforts, Asmiak was defeated, then was betrayed by his lieutenant, the demon-sorcerer Zorasto, who devoured his essence and usurped his place in Hell. Following Asmiak's defeat, Shamus vanished into a fog and hasn't been seen since. Zorasto had his own plans for SUNDER; he wanted to absorb the "Living Thunder" of Thundrax. This led to a cataclysmic battle in 1990, which saw Zorasto attempt to drag Earth into Hell through a Hellgate. SUNDER managed to seal Zorasto inside the gate and close it on him, trapping the demon lord on the border between hell and earth.

The years took their toll on the team. SUNDER's last hurrah came in 1992, in a battle with Borealis, where the terrorist was finally brought to justice. By this time, team meetings felt like reunions of a rock band long ast its prime. The team had more or less broken up. Shamus had disappeared in 1988, vanishing into the fog after the defeat of Asmiak, and his departure was a crippling blow. Avenger spent much of his time raising a family in Japan (though he would return to Canada in the mid-90s and take a position in the RCMP). Cryo was raising his own family (including a mutant daughter, Aurora) in Vancouver. Flux had retreated into his business and engineering projects The Solar Sentinel had taken a position with the Canadian Space Agency, which he would eventually lead (and captured Gadroon and Roin'esh spacecraft certainly made them a significant force in this area).

Thundrax was still a part-time superhero; he spent much of his time mentoring a new Vancouver superhero, the Haida spirit elder Ravenspeaker, who would later be his teammate on the Northern Guard. But Ravenspeaker refused the invitation to join the team, citing conflicts with several members. In truth, he was not needed: with Borealis captured, SUNDER's task was done, and Vancouver conly needed one or two superheroes to protect it. SUNDER ended with a whimper, outlasting the threats to the city they had formed to fight, with the possible exception of Master-Mind, who has remained at large but has remained dormant.

Ultimately, SUNDER was a minor group in a small city that made a moderate impact on superhuman activity in Canada, despite one or two bits of world-saving. They were, however, a model for a number of small locally-based UNTIL teams and at least two members, Thundrax and Avenger/Mark Derringer, went on to more storied careers.

[1]Because of the name and their purpose, supers nicknamed the organization "Genocide", and some of the crazier elements of the organization accepted it as a badge of honor. These would be the same extremists who later captured Trumpeter of the Northern Guard and tried to turn her into a weapon.

[Lawnmower Boy]

So. About that next generation....

[TheQuestionMan]

The Champions of Vancouver's impact shined brightly, but briefly like Camelot before them.

[Zen Archer]

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to Scott for posting these here.

Oh, and that I just got the 5th ed VIPER supplement in the mail today and am enjoying it a lot so far.