What have you done with the Asesinos?

[Kirby]

Hi everybody!

 

With the VOICE of Doom thread and the Eurostar is friggin' fast thread out there, I started thinking about other villainous groups and remembered the Asesinos (4th Ed BBB).

 

Does anyone have any stories about them they'd care to share? In the group I run, the PCs went up against them in "The Adventure" in the back of BBB. At the climax battle, the three PCs were assisted by Freedom Squad (two PCs are members). While the players used the Freedom Squad as cannon fodder, the fight was still a tough one. For the Squad, American Eagle, Victrix, and Dimension Man were knocked out early on, with Jo-Tan being knocked out in the last round. Black Phantom and Hardhat managed to remain conscious throughout. The PCs (Phoenix, Shadow, and Cheetah Chick) all survived conscious.

 

Phoenix (FS member and a brick) ended up knocking Mosquito and Spider Monkey out and out of the junkyard the fight took place in. They were unable to find them.

 

Shadow (FS female member) was wounded twice for three Body total, but did nothing of great significance that I recall.

 

Cheetah Chick (who is based off Ocelote & Jaguar) went toe to toe with Ocelote during the entire fight. Both characters ended up being wounded; however, Cheetah Chick did major Body to Ocelote and each time she rolled hit locations for her major wounds ended up with the hands, ending up cutting them off (and Ocelote eventually bled to death).

 

Asesinos

Mosquito was out before turn 1 was over, if I recall. The flying brick managed to spot him after one or two attacks and knocked the tar out of him, along with sending him out of the junkyard.

 

Ocelote snuck up on Cheetach Chick (PC who is not a member of Freedom Squad yet), but was warned at the last moment by Black Phantom allowing her to "roll" with a deadly attack. He literally fought tooth and nail with her, but the dice rolls were against him as I kept rolling low damage and she kept rolling high. He lost his two front hands/paws and when ko'd, returned to full feline form and bled to death. The media blamed his death on the Asesinos as cruel animal abuse.

 

The Maine went toe to toe with Jo-Tan, but was eventually knocked out (and later arrested).

 

Tombstone Kid earned the wrath of the fliers because he kept shooting them. Phoenix eventually tired of it and did a move-through or move-by on him, taking him out of the fight (and TK was later arrested).

 

Spider Monkey Ego Blasted Dimension Man twice when he tried to surprise her (not know she was a mentalist, just thinking she was a monkey with a knife), which caused him to fall off the Crane they were on and he fell, taking some Body. She was eventually knocked out, but the PCs couldn't find her (the police eventually found her ko'd and believed her to be an abused "pet" and took her to some veterninarian specialists for proper recovery ).

 

Montana had the PCs such a fright that three of them concentrated on it and ko'd it in one phase. When it came to, it melded with the earth and left.

 

El Muerto Obscuro was never seriously hurt, but when the fight ended up with just him and Stalker, he told Stalker it was time to leave and left in a flash of black smoke.

 

Stalker didn't enter the fight until the second turn and held his own against the three characters attacking him, but it was evident he wasn't going to win. He offered up the location of kidnapped Mary Franks (news reporter) and the promise to leave country if allowed to walk, which was (surprisingly) quickly accepted. (The PCs aren't exactly up to "hero" status, so to speak.)

 

Anyone else have a story? (I'll share another later; my wife is taking me out to lunch

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

One campaign I ran years ago made rather extended use of the Asesinos. When I introduced them they were working as enforcers for the Ruler of Crime (from Enemies: The International File), who was methodically extending his control over all the organized crime in Latin America. The PCs came into conflict with them as a result of their attacks against drug dealers for the Colombians and Mexicans in "Campaign City;" the RoC was attempting to choke off his rivals' distribution network in North America so that he could take over their territory. This ultimately led the PCs to a showdown with the Ruler at his headquarters in Brazil. Although their boss was defeated, most of the Asesinos escaped.

 

When I brought them back a couple of years later it appeared that they were now working for a new Mexican drug czar, but the reality was more sinister. The Asesinos had encountered Coatlicue, the Purifier, from To Serve and Protect. In my retconning, the Skull Pendant which Coatlicue carried had once belonged to the spirit which had transformed Stalker into a vampire: Mictlantecuhtli, the Meso-American god of death. In the presence of the pendant Mictlantecuhtli was able to completely possess Stalker and wrest the pendant away from Coatlicue, thereby regaining his full power. The god established a mortal identity as "Miguel Mictlan" within Mexico's criminal community. He used drug distribution as a way to induct manipulable people into his new death cult, including a DNPC of one of the player characters.

 

Mictlantecuhtli had followers at all levels of Mexican society, and intended to establish a new Aztec-style empire with himself as its living god. The PCs found themselves running afoul not only of Miguel Mictlan's gang and the Asesinos, but the forces of the Mexican government. That storyline was headed for a direct confrontation, but my game group broke up before I could wrap it up.

[lemming]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Sounds cool LL and Kirby. Can't say I ever made use of them myself.

[Watchdog]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Most munchkins, awed that Stalker was able to get 20 pts. from a "Dies if staked through heart" physical limitation, refuse to attack him out of professional courtesy...

[Theron]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Sealed them in a concrete vault and burned the only map to the location.

[Kirby]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

I was a player in a game where the Asesinos showed up (same adventure in the BBB). This was our group's famed Tri City team, which was mostly strength characters and known for (accidentally, honest) doing property damage, though my character was a skilled normal who was a firearms expert. At this point, I believe my character had two pistols that shot rubber bullets (as opposed to the Judge Dredd weapon he'd have later) and as professional rivals, went up against Tombstone Kidd. Since he fired two killing attacks and I did not, I'm surprised I was victorious, but I believe his armor (act 11-) failed to activate several times, while my armor (act 15-) managed to always activate and I eeked out victory against him. I think his Find Weakness must have failed against me also (and if I recall correctly, he was the first FW villain who didn't find it on me).

 

However, Spider Monkey ended up attacking me after that and knocking my character out of combat for a couple of phases.

 

We did eventually win and the eldest player (who was the best GM I've ever played under) commented that this was the first time he'd been in an Asesino scenario where Spider Monkey didn't die.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Maybe I should be ashamed to admit this, but I have tried re-working the Asesinos in the latest edition. For some reason I just liked the idea of a bunch of Latin American monsters as villains; they'd be perfect opponents for that ghostbusting luchador mentioned in Champs Universe.

 

Don't have anything 'on hand' though, just all on paper (and as I'm using public access computers, I don't know if I could even send any write-ups of them in).

[incrdbil]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

I tried to use them in a serious role once.,.but as my group was just so highly amused by them, laughing them, and mopping the floor with them in a rather speectacualr fashion, they degenerated into a sort of gag team--the really mean to be Big Time Villains, if it wasn't only for the fact that the heroes constant ridicule and trouncing them made them laughingstocks.

 

Tombstone kid became Tombstone Pizza Face..and the things they did to Spider Monkey ..

 

:Bam--Martial Artist strike to SPider Monkey

Group "Look who's spanking the Monkey....."

 

Stalker was always called Stroker..and they preetended he was just a goth kid who was just really, really horny all the time.

 

El Muerto Obsuro became El Pequeno....

 

tthey always tried called shots against the Mosquito--iting that in nature, a mosquitos reproductive organ took up 20% of its body weight...I didnt really change the damage, but I figured it had to be daunting knowing the opposition was always shooting at your naughty bits.

 

sometimes you just have to go where the events take you....and they just refused to take them seriously.

[ThothAmon]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Ignored them as a poorly written bunch of NPCS. The only one of merit (after reworking) was the Tombstone Kid - slighly altered he made a reasonable mystic villain.

[Enforcer84]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Used them alot. The Main was put out of business in the first adventure, he really didn't fit in with the rest of the team. El Muerto Obscuro did much better and the team was fairly successufl, until EMO figured he could run it better than Stalker did.

He offed the vampire, but found much to his regret that the Vampire's mystic hold on the other members of the team was the only thing that kep them from going nuts. Ocelote killed Mosquito and TK on his way out and Montana joined an elements based hero team.

EMO then began his efforts to become a "Super Ninja".

[Hermit]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Total bias, but since Stalker was one of my contributions to the MC-8, the old 4th Ed vampire is dust or less for my setting

 

Back when I played 4th, the team wasn't taken very seriously by my group. El Muerto Obscuro got a bit of respect, but even he was the victim of such lines as "Habla Es NND?"

 

We were young and mean back then, not old, good and kind like we are now

[Starlord]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Used them alot. The Main was put out of business in the first adventure' date=' he really didn't fit in with the rest of the team. [/quote']

 

Never used the Maine on the team either. If you're called the Assassins, you should be stealthy. The Maine and 'stealthy' go together like Malcolm X and the KKK.

[Haerandir]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

The only time any of Los Asesinos have appeared in any campaign I've been in, it was El Muerto Obscuro, who was played as a slightly loony "LessPow" Hunted for a 500-point character. He wanted to be taken seriously as a supervillain, and set out to destroy a big-name superhero... Unfortunately, he chose The Man of Tin as his arch-nemesis. This was a poor choice on two fronts.

 

A) As noted above, the Man of Tin was significantly more powerful than EMO.

 

The Man of Tin's name was well-deserved... He was all offense, very little defense (unless you were attacking him with microwave lasers). So, assuming that EMO ever managed to get close enough to the Man of Tin to take him out, the general response would have been, "Well, sure. Anyone can sneak up on a man in a tin suit and gank him. Let us know when you defeat Thrag the Invincible!"

[Twilight]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Am I the only one who thinks El Muerto Obscuro should be an evil luchador rather then a ninja? I mean seriously it'd make sense wouldn't it and as somebody else mentioned he would make a good nemesis for El Espectro. Well more acurately El Hijo del Espectro since the original would probably be dead by now.

 

Ocelote would then become an experiment created by the local mad scientist, whom also employs El Muerto Obscuro, because after all Espectro needs a monster to fight.

 

That mad scientist would be El Asesino Medico, coming from a long line of evil Medicos that have plagued heroic luchadors from the very beginning of Lucha Libre! The latest decendent of these rogues has turned his skills of evil medicine, mad science and rudo lucha libre to the assassin profession [continuing an honorable tradition in his family.] He either has an orginization of his own, or is working for a group like VIPER.

[Powerhouse]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

My GM used them one... we laughed in his face until he blurted out, "hey *I* didn't create them!" He even held up the old BBB to show off the pictures... which made us laugh even harder.

 

The Asesinos got taken apart and a few of our Punisher-types went to town. My character with her CvK was pretty quiet and when threatened with penalities for bad RP-ing, I replied, "it'd be worth it to never see these wierdos again."

 

They never DID show up again.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Am I the only one who thinks El Muerto Obscuro should be an evil luchador rather then a ninja? I mean seriously it'd make sense wouldn't it and as somebody else mentioned he would make a good nemesis for El Espectro. Well more acurately El Hijo del Espectro since the original would probably be dead by now.

 

Ocelote would then become an experiment created by the local mad scientist, whom also employs El Muerto Obscuro, because after all Espectro needs a monster to fight.

 

That mad scientist would be El Asesino Medico, coming from a long line of evil Medicos that have plagued heroic luchadors from the very beginning of Lucha Libre! The latest decendent of these rogues has turned his skills of evil medicine, mad science and rudo lucha libre to the assassin profession [continuing an honorable tradition in his family.]

 

Good one, Twilight! Maybe we should ask Steve & Darren to do 'Luchador Hero'.

[steriaca]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Me...I destroyed the team, but had some of the survivors join the "All New, Not Quite Diffrent" Terror Incorprated.

 

Spider Monkey: Joined Terror Inc.

 

Occolote: Ran into the forest of San Murete. Wearabouts unknown.

 

The Main: Saved Profesor Murtie's life, and did some fixes to his power suite (unforcently for the bad profesor, it is still fused to his body, so he can't remove it). Was captured by UNTIL, and then murdered by Spider Monkey.

 

Stalker: Tried to avoid the call of Takofanes. Was destroed by The Tombstone Kid, who didden't avoid the call of Takofanes.

 

The Tombstone Kid: Listened to the call of Takofanes. Became one of his main fighters in his undead army. Also, Takofanes uses him as a sourse of information on "what do thay call that thing...and why should I cair".

 

Mosqueto: Captered by UNTIL, curently in a cell.

 

El Obsurto Murte: Became a mercnarie ninja/assasion for hire.

 

Please forgive my mispelings.

[Twilight]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

Good one' date=' Twilight! Maybe we should ask Steve & Darren to do 'Luchador Hero'.[/quote']

 

*takes a bow*

 

Thanks Fenris. I also agree that a Luchador HERO book would be cool, but I'll settle for a write up of some in Champions Worldwide.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

I came across this neat adventure featuring the Asesinos, by our board colleague Bob Greenwade. It would be easy to adapt to any villain group with similar motivation and methods:

 

http://www.angelfire.com/super2/bobgreenwade/muerte.htm

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

We've never used them, AFAIK. Never cared for them.

[Kirby]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

I came across this neat adventure featuring the Asesinos, by our board colleague Bob Greenwade. It would be easy to adapt to any villain group with similar motivation and methods:

 

http://www.angelfire.com/super2/bobgreenwade/muerte.htm

Cool. Thanks!

[FenrisUlf]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

I came across this neat adventure featuring the Asesinos, by our board colleague Bob Greenwade. It would be easy to adapt to any villain group with similar motivation and methods:

 

http://www.angelfire.com/super2/bobgreenwade/muerte.htm

 

Thanks! When I tried redoing them for the current edtion, I came up with some different ideas than Mister Greenwade. Some Asesinos were heavily redone (Ocelote became female and was called El Tigre; basically a South American/Mexican version of the JLU Cheetah. And Spider Monkey gained a 'Mental Bestialism' power, basically a long-term BOECV Drain vs. INT). Some stayed the same (like Stalker, though he was much more powerful), and others just gained new 'tricks' (like Tombstone Kid, who became much more of an undead zombie).

 

I also dd sme more work on their collective background, adding in some Mexican mythology and history -- i.e., Stalker's temple was moved to Mexico and became Aztec (Camazotz the Bat God!), El Tigre gained her powers courtesy of the Jaguar Priests in the Valley of Night, Montana was originally smmoned to fight the Conquistadors, etc.

 

PS - with Stalker: didn't _Normals Unbound_ list his Tourist Vampire Hunted? I remember his first name, Iggy, as well as the fact that he was the biggest jerkwad of a vampire ever done. I mainly remember that because he was a welcome relief from all the ubercool nightstakers from V:TM.

[Kirby]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

PS - with Stalker: didn't _Normals Unbound_ list his Tourist Vampire Hunted? I remember his first name' date=' Iggy, as well as the fact that he was the biggest jerkwad of a vampire ever done. I mainly remember that because he was a welcome relief from all the ubercool nightstakers from V:TM. [/quote']

Heh, yes, he is in there (pages 42-43). I had never really read all of Iggy's write-up before and am very glad you mentioned him. Thank you. I think I'll be using him.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

I also dd sme more work on their collective background' date=' adding in some Mexican mythology and history -- i.e., Stalker's temple was moved to Mexico and became Aztec (Camazotz the Bat God!), El Tigre gained her powers courtesy of the Jaguar Priests in the Valley of Night, Montana was originally smmoned to fight the Conquistadors, etc.[/quote']

 

I moved Stalker to Meso-America myself, to allow for the conflict with Coatlicue and the Skull Pendant, and make the connection with the god Mictlantecuhtli. The move doesn't change Stalker's background appreciably. Camazotz is a clever idea as well, although bats weren't associated with the vampire myth before Bram Stoker threw in that detail.

 

 

PS - with Stalker: didn't _Normals Unbound_ list his Tourist Vampire Hunted? I remember his first name' date=' Iggy, as well as the fact that he was the biggest jerkwad of a vampire ever done. I mainly remember that because he was a welcome relief from all the ubercool nightstakers from V:TM. [/quote']

 

"Iggy Vane" (can't remember his name before he changed it) was indeed written in NU as the schmoe who revived Stalker and was "rewarded" with undeath. I too thought he was a pretty fun vampire concept... a bit of a geek and a creep, but relatively decent for a bloodsucker. He used his power of mental domination primarily to pick up chicks, and never actually killed any of his victims or turned them into vampires - he drained just enough blood to survive. He'd have made a poor Hunter for Stalker though, partly because Stalker would have crushed him with little effort in a direct confrontation, and partly because Iggy really enjoyed being a vampire.

[Kirby]

Re: What have you done with the Asesinos?

 

"Iggy Vane" (can't remember his name before he changed it) was indeed written in NU as the schmoe who revived Stalker and was "rewarded" with undeath.

His given name was Ingrahm R. Stephansson IV.

 

After seeing some of the posts here, I plan on redoing Los Asesinos the next time I use them. I may have El Muerto Obscuro set-up Stalker to get him killed by the PCs (after all, who has a CvK that applies to vampires?).

 

I may also use Iggy in as a pseudo hunter of Stalker. I have a PC with 15 points of wealth and one with 1, along with an NPC team member who has 5. Together they might end up mingling with Iggy in secret ID and then find him in hero ID and he'll mention he's hunting Stalker (knowing full well Stalker is gone). Perhaps this will lead to the PCs having two 'angles' when it comes to offing Stalker next time he shows up. (Though, I don't know if I'd have Iggy return to human.)