Looking for episode ideas: Shadow Queen

[Tech]

In "The Great Supervillain Contest", one of the villains is Shadow Queen. Selfish but also helpful as the bio goes. I GM her more towards good and getting whatever she wants. I'm looking for suggestions for an episode:

 

For this episode, her powers are greatly increased. Shadow Queen hears news of how many orphans wait long periods of time to be adopted. This triggers something in her and she decides she's going to take all the orphans (probably from one particular orphanage) to a place where she will care for them.

 

Listen to "Children of the Night" by Kate Covington. That's the music I'll play before the episode.

 

What I'm stumped on: a) where will she take them?  I have no idea yet.

b) In her planning, what will she do with them once she 'rescues' them?  Again, no idea but if she did take care of them, it'd take millions.

c) How will she take the orphans?

d) What do the heroes do?  Do they stop her before she accomplishes her plans or do they follow her?

 

So, I'd appreciate your suggestions for the episode. Pardon the joke, but no 'dark' suggestions please - it's not how I GM the villain.

[wcw43921]

For Point A--if Lady Blue or someone like her exists in your campaign, Shadow Queen could contact her to find out if she knows of any "underground railroad" networks that could help get the children to decent, loving homes.

For Point B--Shadow Queen could just as easily found her own sanctuary.  Yes, it would take millions, but that's why supervillains rob banks and diamond exchanges.

 

That's all I got, I'm afraid.  Hope that helps.

[Steve]

Maybe Lady Blue could team up with Shadow Queen to help with robberies that fund caring for the children.

 

Even if they are stopped, the publicity could get interesting.

[death tribble]

Darkness envelops them and she spirits them away. Or darkness envelops the guardians while she takes them away

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, death tribble said:

Darkness envelops them and she spirits them away. Or darkness envelops the guardians while she takes them away

 

The beginning of what I was thinking. Shadow Queen's powers increase to the point where she can access their source, a "shadow dimension" which she can enter, and into which she can draw others. The dimension is inhabited by shadow creatures who can care for the orphans, while SQ can steal all the food and other supplies they need.

 

What happens next depends on what you decide the true motivations of the shadow creatures are.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Given the Shadow Queen's astonishingly high PRE vs. men, I am sure she could convince the guy running the orphanage of her choice let her take the kids with only preliminary paperwork and the promise that they will sort it all out later.  She could easily deal with anyone who might try to stop her; it isn't like an orphanage is going to have security that could stop a supervillain.  The kids are likely to go with her just to get out of the orphanage, or possibly because they get scared if she does have to 'deal' with someone that stood up to her.

 

What happens next is the more interesting question.  If you play her with good intentions but shallow, then she will have effectively kidnapped the orphans, moving them from a formal orphanage to an orphanage that she runs.  It might be nicer, but the kids circumstances won't really be much different except that they may have a harder time getting away.

 

Maybe she wants to be a good mother, but has little patience with the kids, especially ones who may very well already have emotional problems.  She might have a few violent outbursts, and the kids are terrified of her.  This is the easy scenario for the heroes, since the kids clearly need to be rescued.  The real question is whether the Shadow Queen would use the children as hostages when the heroes arrive.  That seems a bit dark for her, but who knows what she might do if cornered.

 

Or perhaps she is a natural mother, and does take good care of the children and they love her.  Sure she is a wanted criminal and kidnapped the children, but their circumstances are much better and they don't want to leave.  How do the heroes handle that situation?

 

Another wrinkle is her long-term plans for the kids.  Is she planning to pay for private schooling and send them all to college so they can be productive members of society, or is she grooming them to work for her in the criminal underworld?

[Steve]

13 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

The beginning of what I was thinking. Shadow Queen's powers increase to the point where she can access their source, a "shadow dimension" which she can enter, and into which she can draw others. The dimension is inhabited by shadow creatures who can care for the orphans, while SQ can steal all the food and other supplies they need.

 

What happens next depends on what you decide the true motivations of the shadow creatures are.

It could be like a form of Neverland, perhaps with a gothic horror tinge.

[steriaca]

4 hours ago, Steve said:

It could be like a form of Neverland, perhaps with a gothic horror tinge.

Hopefully not THAT Neverland from the anime. What shock for the kids to learn they are being fattened up for a monster's feast.

 

(I'm talking about the Promised Netherland here. Not that the other one wasn't spooky.)

[Steve]

3 minutes ago, steriaca said:

Hopefully not THAT Neverland from the anime. What shock for the kids to learn they are being fattened up for a monster's feast.

 

(I'm talking about the Promised Netherland here. Not that the other one wasn't spooky.)

I was thinking more like a Neverland out of classic fairy tales and not the Disney version.

 

Wonderland in the books can be pretty scary too.

 

The Shadow Realm could be a very fairy tale-like world, filled with moral lessons and rewards for good children and horrific, perhaps fatal, endings for those that are bad.

[DShomshak]

4 hours ago, Steve said:

It could be like a form of Neverland, perhaps with a gothic horror tinge.

This. Brushing up on her background, the key element is that the Shadow Queen is a fairy tale creature and her Shadow Realm is part of the wider Land of Legends. So she's not going to do something sensible and rationally planned out such as steal money to endow a nicer orphanage. She'll abduct the children into the Shadow Realm and try fitting them into a fairy tale -- or she didn't think that far ahead and lets the narrative nature of the Land of Legends shape what happens.

 

One option: the Shadow Queen shapes an island as the orphans' playset new home, imagining it'll be Neverland, with the orphans as the Lost Boys. Perhaps she even deputizes one of her minions to act as their version of Peter Pan. Except, 1) this is the Shadow Realm, so this "Neverland" might be gloomier, creepier, and more dangerous than the original; and 2), real children are not as sweet and innocent as J. M. Barrie's Edwardian versions. The result might be less Peter Pan, more Lord of the Flies.

 

Another option: The Shadow Queen is not a woman who can summon or turn into a dragon, she's a dragon who can take human form. As we all know, fairy-tale dragons are hoarders. In this version, the Shadow Queen takes the children to live with her in her castle. She provides all the material things they could want. However, she doesn't really "get" human emotions and social needs. After the novelty of toys and cake wears off, the kids might get really bored. Or frightened, especially once they realize their hyper-protective/possessive new "mother" won't let them go outside.

 

You can combine these elements. Maybe the Shadow Queen releases the children into her "Neverland" and apparently forgets about them. But when the heroes from Earth come to rescue them, she reacts with the possessive fury of a dragon whose hoard is being robbed.

 

Another factor: Faerie is timeless. The abducted children will never grow up. Whatever situation they are in, they will be in forever if the heroes do not rescue them. And no, the heroes probably cannot convince the Shadow Queen to ordain a region in which time can pass normally and the children can grow up normally. She isn't that patient, or that human.

 

Dean Shomshak

6 minutes ago, Steve said:

The Shadow Realm could be a very fairy tale-like world, filled with moral lessons and rewards for good children and horrific, perhaps fatal, endings for those that are bad.

This too. One more reason the heroes need to rescue the children.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

Um, Dean, the OP was asking about the Shadow Queen from The Great Super Villain Contest adventure module for pre-4E Champions. A shadow-force-manipulating standard supervillain. The Shadow Queen from 5E/6E Champions is a very different character.

[DShomshak]

Oops! I didn't realize that. Reading comprehension fail for me. 

 

Never mind.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Hermit]

On 8/3/2022 at 1:16 PM, DShomshak said:

Oops! I didn't realize that. Reading comprehension fail for me. 

 

Never mind.

 

Dean Shomshak

If it helps, I thought the same thing

[Lord Liaden]

At this point in comic history it's really hard to come up with a superhero/villain name that hasn't already been used by someone sometime. 

[Hermit]

35 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

At this point in comic history it's really hard to come up with a superhero/villain name that hasn't already been used by someone sometime. 

 

True! I even like how the CU makes that work for it as a plot point now and then. For example, there are like three Thunderbolts, and if I recall, none of them like the others much. It's a good hook for some interesting villain cross overs the PCs may stumble onto

[Lord Liaden]

Two Thunderbolts, and yes, the first one wants to eliminate the second one for using "his" name. The CU has several duplicates running around: two Eclipses, two Warmongers, two Proteuses (Protei?)... I'm certain there are more than come to mind at the moment. The setting also has a bunch of legacy characters who took up a name/identity after the previous holder retired or died, like Black Mask, the All-American, the Golden Avenger, Scarlet Archer, Meteor Man, etc.

 

Speaking of Thunderbolts, Marvel Comics had a brief conflict between Luke Cage while he called himself Power Man, and the villainous Erik Josten, who gained powers from the machine that created Wonder Man, and who also used the code-name Power Man. Cage soundly beat Josten, who went through other names and power changes before ending up as Atlas of the Thunderbolts.

[Steve]

Perhaps the OP’s Shadow Queen is an avatar (fetch?) of the far more powerful one from 6th Edition. Their powers might link them somehow. This would offer a larger potential plotline, making the mortal Shadow Queen a sort of decoy enemy, like a Doombot.

 

Just a thought.

[DShomshak]

Okay, I don't remember anything about the Shadow Queen from The Great Supervillain Contest, though I think I read that module some de cades ago. Anyway, OP is changing her somewhat. Still, I'll try again.

 

Where does she take the orphans? Someplace fairly isolated, so the authorities don't immediately find them again. Also, it's less likely that any kids run away (because they're freaked at being abducted/rescued by a supervillain) and call in the authorities as a result.

 

How does she take them? That depends on her capabilities, which I don't know. It also doesn't much matter for now. Work it out later. It's most important for when the heroes try to figure out who took the orphans, how, and where.

 

The big one: What does she do with the children once she has them? Taking care of them will indeed require minions. Also a place to house the kids and the minions. And some way to support all this. Does the Shadow Queen have the necessary resources, or a straightforward way to get them?

 

My suggestion: She decides she needs help from other villains, who perhaps have resources and expertise she lacks. Her new orphanage is a cooperative venture with some other villains, who have their own ideas about how to raise a bunch of orphans.

 

Result: The heroes somehow track the orphans to their new home. Private island, remote mansion or reconditioned hotel, subterranean Lost World, whatever. And they find the facilities are... nice. The kids are well housed and fed. They have recreational facilities. Exercise machines. Wait -- a marksmanship range?

 

Yes, the villains see this new joint-venture orphanage as a way to turn impressionable children into agents to back them in their criminal schemes. Presumably, heeroes will find this objectionable.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

4 hours ago, Steve said:

Perhaps the OP’s Shadow Queen is an avatar (fetch?) of the far more powerful one from 6th Edition. Their powers might link them somehow. This would offer a larger potential plotline, making the mortal Shadow Queen a sort of decoy enemy, like a Doombot.

 

Just a thought.

 

The avatar idea is interesting. It's fairly common in the Champions Universe for powerful supernatural entities to imbue some of their power into chosen agents, especially if they're restricted in some way from acting freely on Earth. In the CU the most potent entities of darkness ever published are the demonic Kigatilik in the far North, and Eclipsar from out of South America (in Champions Villains vols. 1 and 3, respectively). Both of these terrible monsters have plans that would result in the death of the entire Earth. Perhaps the stolen children are part of a great ritual to bring that about.

 

Another possibility that occurred to me is to use an NPC from the Fourth Edition Champions book, Everyman. "Mr. Rapentap" is a malevolent once-human spirit, a kind of utterly evil Pied Piper, who steals the innocence from young children, rendering them immortal but soulless, lacking all compassion or empathy. Perhaps the Shadow Queen encountered Mr. Rapentap, who maintains the illusory appearance of a charming and persuasive man, and together they hatched this mass kidnapping scheme. Mr. Rapentap has a supernatural Master who gave him this form and mission, and who might be able to enhance the Shadow Queen's abilities to the desired level.