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Time Travel in the Champions Universe


Steve

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My current campaign group (about two years running now) is off on a multi-session trip backwards into the past of the Champions Universe, answering a magical summons from somewhere far in the past. Part of the reason I'm doing it is for some in-campaign retcons and character development.

 

So far they've visited:

 

1937 AD Los Angeles: Fought pulp era DEMON and destroyed the organization before it could rise to power. One of the characters was killed by magic, leading to the next leap back...

 

1906 AD Russia: Encountered the Archmage in Czarist Russia, and he resurrected the fallen party member. After deliberating, the party's mage wrote out a warning detailing what was known of the events of the Archmage's death in 1908. There was concern he might interfere in the ritual in 1938 that birthed the Superhuman Age, so they weren't sure he should be warned.

 

520 AD France: The team has just met up with Lancelot on his way to his historical battle against the Black Paladin. Unknown to them all, the medieval version of the unholy knight has magical allies that will require the superheroes assistance to overcome.

 

Any suggestion on villains who might be appropriate to the era that would ally with Black Paladin as of 520 AD?

 

I'm trying to stick to major decision points in the CUs history, so any suggestions on other important times and places are welcome. They still have a long way to go before their journey is done and they finally return to an altered present.

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Considering that Giles de Morphant was an avowed enemy of Arthur and the Round Table, I would say that Morgan Le Fey and Mordred would definitely be among his allies.  Also, the great serpent Nama (VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent, pgs. 6-14) could sense the presence of the PCs in the medieval era and send one of his "Vipers Upon The Land" with a host of his warriors to oppose them.  Should the PCs defeat this Viper and his minions, Nama would remember this "affront" and influence the VIPER of the present day to attack the PCs if and when they return.

 

Hope that helps.

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Let us see...

 

Black Paladin

 

Chatell the Witch

 

Morgen Le Fey

 

The More Of The Viper

 

Morodred

 

Nymin

 

The Green Knight

 

That is seven right there. Seeing that Nymin is the equivalent of Merlin for the bad guys, we got three sorceress, and a head hunting immortal, who knows if the heros can win (not to mention a giant magical snake who is wise enough not to be on the frount lines).

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Considering that Giles de Morphant was an avowed enemy of Arthur and the Round Table, I would say that Morgan Le Fey and Mordred would definitely be among his allies. Also, the great serpent Nama (VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent, pgs. 6-14) could sense the presence of the PCs in the medieval era and send one of his "Vipers Upon The Land" with a host of his warriors to oppose them. Should the PCs defeat this Viper and his minions, Nama would remember this "affront" and influence the VIPER of the present day to attack the PCs if and when they return.

 

Hope that helps.

Is there a write-up for Morgan Le Fay anywhere?

 

If they do something to stop the fall of Camelot, the next few centuries could be quite interesting. Imagine if Lancelot died before his betrayal of Arthur occurred.

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Let us see...

 

Black Paladin

 

Chatell the Witch

 

Morgen Le Fey

 

The More Of The Viper

 

Morodred

 

Nymin

 

The Green Knight

 

That is seven right there. Seeing that Nymin is the equivalent of Merlin for the bad guys, we got three sorceress, and a head hunting immortal, who knows if the heros can win (not to mention a giant magical snake who is wise enough not to be on the frount lines).

Chatell is a definite possibility. A villain team of mystical sorts would require the hero team to step in to aid Lancelot. The team only numbers five, so I have to be careful to not overwhelm them with too many heavy hitters.

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World War Two is a great place to visit. The Nazis were interested in mystic items and perhaps one of the villains is working with then in order to get control of a magic item to use as a weapon.

I thought about WW II era, but decided to pass by that time period. It gets a lot of time traveller attention, so I was trying to use less used time travel destinations.

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I thought about WW II era, but decided to pass by that time period. It gets a lot of time traveller attention, so I was trying to use less used time travel destinations.

Humm...super cavemen. Or, in the words of a Hanna-Barbara hero; Suppppeeeerrrr-Cavemannn!!!

 

(I know, it is suppose to be Captiannn-Cavemannn!!!, but not everyone can be a captain.)

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Well, you need to make all three sorceresses distinced. There is already a write up for Cantell (Shades Of Black). Moragen should be powerful Unsellie based fey magic user. And considering her age, Nymin should also be powerful.

 

Nymin: Demon based magic should be intresting. And some shapechanging (to have a bit of Madame Minn from The Sword In The Stone). Most of her major spells are in long rituals, so it should basically be shapechanging (but amazingly so), and the four elements control, and animal control.

 

Morgan LeFey: If I remember correctly, she may be half fey (hench yhe name?). Her magic should be more based on illusions and fey glamour. She can defend herself quite well, and might be more like Loki in nature.

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As to other times to visit, a trip back to the 1770s might be interesting.  1772 was the start of the original Black Mask, the first "costumed hero" in America.
 

I ran an alternate world game where someone from the future went back and built a submarine to help the British win the Revolutionary War.  The Brits controlled Boston until March 1775, so that's where I had the sub secretly based.  You could have the PCs help Black Mask find and destroy such a sub.

 

A trip to the 1970s could also be interesting.  (Think of the clothing, and disco...)  In 1972 Yvette Ste. Germaine left UNTIL to found L'Institut Thoth.  In 1975 Dr. Destroyer first appears, attempting to conquer California.  Either event has repercussions enough to qualify.

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A visit to the Revolutionary War time might be quite interesting.

 

The mage character in the group is immortal, so they've already run across a past version of him in 1937 (he was born in the 1920s). I described it as Gemini-ing himself. The Edomite from 2016 followed them from the future and possessed his past self, threatening the mage's younger time twin with death, so the character killed the Edomite, pretty much ending DEMON then and there.

 

I have to be careful to not let this scenario swallow up my campaign, so I'm trying to pick special places and times to visit that would be fun.

 

A meeting with Doctor Destroyer could be interesting. Has he ever time travelled for one of his schemes?

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A visit to the Revolutionary War time might be quite interesting.

 

The mage character in the group is immortal, so they've already run across a past version of him in 1937 (he was born in the 1920s). I described it as Gemini-ing himself. The Edomite from 2016 followed them from the future and possessed his past self, threatening the mage's younger time twin with death, so the character killed the Edomite, pretty much ending DEMON then and there.

 

I have to be careful to not let this scenario swallow up my campaign, so I'm trying to pick special places and times to visit that would be fun.

 

A meeting with Doctor Destroyer could be interesting. Has he ever time travelled for one of his schemes?

Nope, but he is actively working on it. If he could conquer time then immortality would be no problem for him.

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For a villain who could appear in any time period, I would suggest the Empyrean, Arvad, aka "Arvad the Betrayer." According to his write-up in Hidden Lands, Arvad wandered the world of Man for tens of thousands of years, deliberately manipulating others into all manner of evil, before returning to Arcadia around 1800. His wickedness at least rivals that of the Black Paladin.

520 AD also doesn't seem too far outside "the height of the Dark Ages," which was when the serpent-god Nama gathered his six "vipers upon the land," the powerful warlords he planned to conquer the world in his name. The warlords' greatest weapon, the mighty dragon Bludrinkig, was slain by an unspecified "hero," causing them to quarrel and ultimately kill each other. (Preceding paraphrased from VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent p. 6.)

If you're thinking of a trip to revolutionary America, it was shortly after that that Eustace Blackmun founded the Trismegistus Council to oppose the Circle of the Scarlet Moon (Champions Villains Vol. 2 p. 18). Could be he needed some help.

In the Victorian era, "the notorious Dr. Victor Vulcaine," whose experiments in controlled sound rivaled the feats popularly attributed to Nikola Tesla in electricity, was patronized by the Unholy Order of the Grand Reptile, director predecessor of VIPER. (V:COTS p. 7)

The Empyrean named Zoltar, son of King Hazor and father of Archon the current Crown Prince of Arcadia, died fighting the "bizarre," "terrible" monster called Kikada off the coast of Japan, before 1000 AD (Hidden Lands pp. 53 and 58). If monster fighting appeals to you, Nama's sister Xoruba terrorized Egypt at "the dawn of recorded history," before Egypt's First Dynasty, until she was killed by another unspecified hero. (V:COTS p. 7)

In 1878 in the American West, the vampire Carraway created a pack of vampire henchmen to attack his enemy, the sixth Black Mask. Black Mask survived and defeated the vampires, but frankly, that seems unlikely unless he had assistance. (The only known survivor of those vampires was Billy Hearn, now known as Stalker. See Champions Villains Vol. 3 p. 263.)

I'll see if I can dig up some more possibilities.

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If you're looking for interesting points in history, there's also

 

1066: Norman invasion of England.

 

1212: The Children's Crusade

 

30 BCE: Death of Cleopatra (and the accompanying conquest of Egypt by Rome and Gaius Julius Caesar.)

 

~2580 BCE: Building of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

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Ooh! What about some nefarious attempt to stop the conquistadors and establish an enduring bloody Aztec Empire, drawing on dark magic and human sacrifice.

 

It presents a difficult dilemma of whether to allow the atrocities of the Conquistadors and the massive death rates versus the ongoing evil of a horrific religion.

 

All the interferers seek to do is immunise the population to a few common diseases and a bit of iron working. They hope numbers will do the rest...

 

Maybe conquistador iron also interferes with Aztec magic, they may just tell the priests how to get round that bit and let fell magic win...

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Ooh! What about some nefarious attempt to stop the conquistadors and establish an enduring bloody Aztec Empire, drawing on dark magic and human sacrifice.

 

It presents a difficult dilemma of whether to allow the atrocities of the Conquistadors and the massive death rates versus the ongoing evil of a horrific religion.

 

All the interferers seek to do is immunise the population to a few common diseases and a bit of iron working. They hope numbers will do the rest...

 

Maybe conquistador iron also interferes with Aztec magic, they may just tell the priests how to get round that bit and let fell magic win...

I thought the aztecs were in decline and the Mayans were the more likely winners of something preventing the conquistadors from doing what they did. Maybe I have that backwards.

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I thought the aztecs were in decline and the Mayans were the more likely winners of something preventing the conquistadors from doing what they did. Maybe I have that backwards.

You have it backwards unfortunately. The Maya were the older civilization, and had been in decline for some time. In the end, the Europeans hit North America at just the right time, as all of the native civilizations were in decline. (The reason is still the center of a great deal of debate.) Had Columbus's voyage been just a couple of hundred of years earlier, he would have found a much more populated and organized North America, and that whole scenario may have turned out very differently.

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I'd say the Shadow Queen's human form stats from Champions Villains 1 would do in a pinch; they're basically the same character archetype.

The Shadow Queen and Black Paladin were teamed up in one scenario I ran for the group. She had him under an enchantment, so I gave the scenario some Disney-esque scenes, complete with him singing while prepping his troops at a castle in the Shadow Queen's realm.

 

One quote: "Who knew Black Paladin had such a marvelous singing voice?"

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The Shadow Queen and Black Paladin were teamed up in one scenario I ran for the group. She had him under an enchantment, so I gave the scenario some Disney-esque scenes, complete with him singing while prepping his troops at a castle in the Shadow Queen's realm.

 

One quote: "Who knew Black Paladin had such a marvelous singing voice?"

"No one sits like Morphant, no one HITS like Morphant, no one spreads evil 'cross the whole land like Morphant..."

 

Great.  I'm going to be hearing that all day now. :)

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