First Adventure Module need revision

[SuperBlue]

Okay, I have a game starting up in about a month. None of my players frequent these boards so I can post some of the background on my game.

 

The game takes place in the Champions Universe, and takes place in Kansas City. Basically the PC's are independant Heroes in the start of their career and do not know eachother. But here's some background for the city...

 

 

From 1997-1999 there was a hero team called The Crusaders; consisting of 4 Local Heroes: Torrent (Leader, basically a GL Clone but a Mutant), Impact (Powered Armor User), Crystal Pheonix (Mystic-Spirit from another plane), and Whitefox (Mentalist).

 

Basically in 1999 Torrent was killed, Impact was left Crippled, Crystal Pheonix returned to her homeplane taking Whitefox with her. No one really knows why The Crusaders split up or what happened to Crystal Pheonix or Whitefox (who are presumed to dead). It's been 5 years and crime has gotten pretty bad. There are a handful of solo-heroes, but the City wants a Sanctioned Team.

 

I was thinking something along the following:

In 1999 The Crusaders caught wind of a DEMON plot to summon a powerful creature to help them capture Crystal Pheonix to steal her powers. As it turns out, the "alleged plan" was a trap and The Crusaders walked right into it. DEMON managed to drain a large portion of Crystal Pheonix's power and used it to rip Torrent's soul from his body, and Impact was severely injured. Crystal Pheonix used what remaining power she had in a last-ditch effort to stop DEMON (accidently killing those involved) and transporting herself and Whitefox to her home plane of existance.

 

However, the vessal that housed CP's powers (a large crystal- globe held in the basement of an abanonded mansion) held fast to her powers, and a large portion of her soul. Crystal Pheonix remains in her home plane in a catatonic state waiting for the rest of her to return, and Whitefox refuses to leave her side.

 

Whitefox (who has great precognative power) forsaw the PC's becoming a great super-hero team, and contacted them in their dreams - showing them the orb containing CP's essence. He can't show them much, the gap between planes of existance being too great, but he shows them the image of Crystal Pheonix trapped inside of the orb, the mansion where the Orb is kept, and that some great evil was searching for the Orb.

 

The great evil is actually Takofanes. He reincarnated the souls of several DEMON members to fuel one of his constructs, and to learn any secrets the puny group had to offer him. An Orb holding much of the power of an extraplanar being was too tempting for him to pass up, and he has been searching for the Mansion where DEMON sprung the trap (the DEMON opperative who spilled the beans was not able to tell him the exact location of the Mansion because he himself did not know how to get there). Of course, The Undying Lord is far to busy to search for the mansion himself, so he'll send a powerful demonic-servent to bring him the orb.

 

Basically the PC's (individually) will have to find out who Crystal Pheonix is, where the mansion is, and stop Takofanes's servent from obtaining the orb. Then they will have to free Crystal Pheonix's essence from the orb so it can rejoin with the rest of her.

 

As far as methods for finding the mansion and stuff, I was thinking of dropping hints such as using the Mansion in an advertisement for a Real Estate Company, having something on TV like an Unsolved Mysteries showing that Impact is in a Vetran's hospital and refuses to talk to reporters, and if push comes to shove, have some of the Heroes irresistably compelled to go to the mansion.

 

So... anyone have any comments/sugguestions on how to improve this "first encounter?"

 

EDIT:

Just had a brainstorm: What if the DEMON group that trapped Crystal Pheonix's powers were rogue... and another DEMON group decided to use the same Mansion as their own HQ... but didn't know about the secret door leading to the Orb? Then the PC's would have to deal with DEMON and Takofanes's demon...

[SuperBlue]

Re: First Adventure Module need revision

 

Wow... Had to dig to find this. No has a comment or sugguestion? Like? Hate? Think it need a certain something... what the French call Je ne sais quais?

[starblaze]

Re: First Adventure Module need revision

 

If you gave us an idea about the actual heroes involved in this new team that would help alot.

[Kirby]

Re: First Adventure Module need revision

 

Wow... Had to dig to find this. No has a comment or sugguestion? Like? Hate? Think it need a certain something... what the French call Je ne sais quais?

Hmm... lots of info, too much clutter for the mind...

 

Okay, I calmed down. You seem to have more background info that adventure info. The main problem seems to be getting the heroes to the mansion. Do any of your heroes have mystical senses? Do any of them have DEMON as a hunted? A magic-themed hunted? Detective skills? If any of the first three, I'd use them to move those PCs into the direction of the Mansion. If one of the PCs has Detective Skills (and is either a detective in secret ID or is known for his Detective Skills), have a DNPC of maybe Crystal Phoenix ask said hero to search for CP.

 

The dream sequences seam pretty heavy-handed to me, but considering this is a first run, it may be needed.

[KA.]

Re: First Adventure Module need revision

 

SuperBlue,

It sounds too complicated. I think you should go with something like:

"The bad guys are robbing a bank."

 

Just kidding!

 

It sounds interesting, but it also sounds a little restrictive.

What I mean is that the players don't really seem to have a lot of options as far as their actions and their consequences.

 

You might want to come up with some alternatives for them.

 

Like:

 

1) DEMON agents have found the orb already, but they are not able to move it because of it's delicate nature. So instead, they have made a mystic temple (doesn't look evil or anything, like one of those New Age places) out of the mansion that houses the orb. They have learned over the years somewhat of what happened and are trying to turn it to their favor. They want to use the orb to summon Crystal Phoenix back to this plane, using the part of her spirit that is in the orb. The ceremonies that they have performed so far have tainted the orb itself, but not the essence within it.

If they manage to summon her back to this plane in this way, she too will be tainted with the orb's evil, becoming, wait for it . . . Dark Crystal Phoenix!

The players may end up trying to defend the "good" guys who run the temple, from the "bad" guys who want to take the orb. This doesn't mean failure. It just means that for the rest of the campaign they will have a Hunted/Hunting relationship with Dark Crystal Phoenix. For a little added drama, have Whitefox return from the other dimension. He will be angry that they screwed up, want to help them recapture her, and get in the way if he thinks she will be harmed.

 

2) If they figure out what is really going on, that the temple guys are up to no good. How do they "free" the essence? Do they break the orb or what? You could have something where there is a ceremony that must be performed, but they don't have the know-how. Maybe they can trick the DEMON agents into doing it for them? Or find someone who knows how to perform it?

 

3) When the servant of Takofanes shows up, do they have to "defeat" it, or just "delay" it until the ceremony is performed? Are they really going to end up Hunted by Takofanes if they succeed? Or is this too petty for him to really care about?

 

4) Instead of having the traditional Big Red Firebreathing Demon, you could have the servant appear as a spirit. The spirit of Crystal Phoenix. Offering them incorrect information on how to free "her". They could be told to steal the orb and take it to a "special place" (where the servant will reveal itself and a fight will ensue). But what are the chances of them figuring out that something is wrong with this picture. If the spirit could manifest itself, why didn't it do so all along. You could have the "spirit" not know the details of the "dreams" they were sent. That should be enough of a clue if they are on their toes, even if you don't make it obvious.

 

Just some ideas,

 

KA.

[ChuckB]

Re: First Adventure Module need revision

 

You should consider adding details relating to some of the PCs. Hunteds, DNPCs, background stuff, etc.

[SuperBlue]

Re: First Adventure Module need revision

 

Okay, right now only 2 Writeups are complete (still waiting on some of my other players to get theirs done). Right now there are:

 

Spectre - Mentalist that can turn into a ghost (Desolid with the SFX she travels to the Astral Plane). Mainly an Intrusion/Espionage type. She has DEMON as a hunted because they want to control her so she can MindControl Ghosts.

 

TigerLily - Martial Artist with an amulet holding the spirit of an ancient mystical warrior, which grants her the warriors Powres. She has DEMON as a hunted because they want her amulet.

 

Another is a powered-armor user... still waiting to get an idea of what he wants done before we do his writeup (game isn't for another month)

 

And I have 3 (maybe 4) more players. 2 want to play bricks (annoyance to me... but that's what they want) and another wants to be an Energy Projector (no clue on what SFX or what not). Number 7 has yet to decide what she wants to play.

 

Upon rehashing the idea, I've decided to go with this:

 

Spectre has a DNPC that's a paranormal investigator, and uses Spectre's abilities so Spectre can search for and talk to ghosts. There is a mansion outside of the city limits that is reputed to be haunted. Spectre and her DNPC are there to search for ghosts.

 

As Tiger Lily is hunted by DEMON, trying to think of a way to put her in harms way, so to speak.

 

The Powered Armor has a Dream where Whitefox shows him Crystal Pheonix trapped in the Orb, and shows him how to get to the orb - but he has to figure out how to get to the mansion. Considering he's wealthy, he may have seen the mansion in a real-estate brochure while looking to purchase his home. (thus he'll be able to find the mansion without much trouble)

 

Some of the PC's hear of a monster tearing about the forest. They go to search for it, meet up, and find the Demon searching for the Mansion (it knows what it looks like but now where it is). They can either try talking to it (in which it tells them to go away as it has to find something for its master), attacking it (in which it flees), or following it.

 

Anyway... still have to wait on the other Players to send me their Writeups so I can look over them *sigh*

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: First Adventure Module need revision

 

Not sure if you need both DEMON and Takofanes. Sould probably make it work with just one.

 

As a classic villain bit, you could always have the heroes find the mansion becasue the villains lead them right to it. It all depends what kind of flunky gets sent to retrieve the orb. Sombies attract attention, for example.

 

If their is a rivalry between Taky and DEMON, perhaps DEMON warns the characters...then tries to doublecross them later.

 

One idea I had for Takofanes had to do with why he does the things he does. It occurred to me that maybe what he really seeks his knowledge, as well as power. Remember, this guy knows almost nothing about the modern world, supposedly. What if he is trying to correct the problem?

 

Perhaps he collects the souls/spirits of important people, or knowledgable people, then questions them for information. Not sure how, or if you would do this game wise...but maybe you don't really need to.

 

Provides a reason for him to go after the orb thingee, and provides a motivation to a character who needs one.