My Major adventure involving VIPER's Serpent Lantern.

[Herolover]

Okay. Here is an adventure I am working on for my campaign. The characters are your basic 350pt good guys. If you are part of the Southeast Missouri Campaign or don't want any spoilers on VIPER stop reading here............

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Background

The Serpent Lantern of Nama was lost during a battle between VIPER and Dr. Destroyer. It fell to the earth (location to be determined by GM I am using Antarctica) where it remained undisturbed with only Nama and the Supreme Serpent knowing its location. The Serpent of the Lantern, actually Nama’s son, felt betrayed by his father as he was left alone to languish in the frozen depths of Antarctica. As the cold overtook him and sleep came upon him he vowed revenge upon his father and those that had used him.(Dr. Destroyer, Nama, Council of Thirty, mankind etc.)

The Serpent of the Lantern remained undisturbed for years until he was discovered, completely by accident, by Mechanon. Mechanon recognized that the lantern was an item of power and took it to his local laboratory-factory for investigation. There the Serpent of the Lantern, now calling himself ??, was able to infiltrate Mechanon’s factory and began to take control of Mechanon and the factory. As he was being taken over Mechanon was able send a signal to one of his factories in deep Africa to start production and reclaim him Antarctic domain. ??, unaware that Mechanon had activated another factory in Africa, set about using Mechanon’s factory to create for himself a body and mindless robotic minions to do his bidding.

The activation of a factory near Nama’s home area woke him and using mystical spells he discovered his rebellious son. Nama realized that ?? could use the technology of Mechanon to threaten him. Nama acted by sending visions of a possible future to several members of the Council of Thirty, Viperia, and certain heroes he felt were best placed to aid in the coming battle.

 

Act One

The PCs receive visions of a destroyed landscape where VIPER, PRIMUS, and UNTIL work together to overcome “invaders†using strange technology. Also Nama contacts the Supreme Serpent and Viperia and alerts them to the new threat. (I have actually started this part. I had the heroes received very stylized and symbolic visions. As the visions occur more frequently they will become less stylized and less symbolic.)

 

 

I am still working on where to go from this point. Ideas I have are........

a) The visions continue and intensify.

 

VIPER attacks a technology site, the heroes intervene and some VIPER agents, I plan on using VIPER-X mention that a larger threat is coming and VIPER is actually attacking to site to keep it from the new threat.

 

c) Mechanon appears and kidnaps a large number of people. Maybe a whole small town, or a whole group of people to watching a sporting event. This will obviously be very strange. Mechanon kidnapping people instead of killing them? (?? needs actually biological flesh for some of his powers to operate.)

 

d) The PCs battle ?? in the form of Mechanon when the real Mechanon shows up. Who do you cheer for? Do the PCs stay out of the way or get involved in the battle. Why are there two Mechanon's.

 

Finally the PCs will learn the true threat and Dr. Destroyer(or his agents), VIPER, and the PCs will have to work together to battle this new threat. I see it coming down to the PCs learning that although ?? is somewhat free of the lantern it is still the base of his power. They will discover that it is at the factory in Antarctica and they must battle to Antarctica, to the factory, and finally battle ?? at the lantern.

 

The great thing is they can't destroy ?? or the lantern. They can only force him back into the lantern and disconnect him from the factory. Then the real fun starts to see who keeps the lantern or what happens to it.

 

I still have a lot to work on because I need to know what are some of the things the Serpent of the Lantern can do? What can he do in the body of Mechanon? What kind of powers should-could his minions have?

 

I see this as a major wham adventure taking many sessions, crossing comic isssues and the whole lot. The kind of major thing Marvel did where it took 6 months to a year, crossed all lines, and then in the end nothing really changed.

 

Comments, questions, suggestions are EARGERLY awaited.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: My Major adventure involving VIPER's Serpent Lantern.

 

This is a really interesting concept, Herolover. What you're playing with has some interesting implications:

 

First, the Serpent was able to infiltrate Mechanon's technology. Mechanon himself has the ability to control and animate technology. Perhaps the Serpent's power augments those abilities of the Mechanon form (increase to his MP or through Aid). Or the Serpent can now extend those powers beyond technology, to affect organic matter, or non-technological inanimate material. Or perhaps blend the two, to create cyborg monsters. In any case, I'd suggest that minions animated by the Serpent have snakelike forms, to provide a unique and consistent motif.

 

As a corollary to its technological control powers, and intimate knowledge of VIPER, it would be reasonable to expect the Serpent to infiltrate VIPER's Serpentine computer network. This would be a great asset to its plans to bring down VIPER; the Serpent could sow disinformation, leading VIPER to take actions of its choosing.

 

As proposed, the Serpent will have several main adversaries: Nama, VIPER, Dr. Destroyer, and Mechanon. For a truly epic scheme, the Serpent could attempt to trick each of these adversaries into attacking each other. Manipulating VIPER has already been covered, and you've suggested that the Serpent appear in Mechanon's form. I don't see why it couldn't also build a body resembling Dr. Destroyer's armor so that it could masquerade as that villain as well.

 

I could see the PCs being caught in the middle of these conflicts, trying to control the collateral damage and convince the various parties that their true nemesis is someone else.

 

For a climax, I'm picturing the Serpent building itself a gigantic robotic dragon body powerful enough to confront Nama himself. Set the confrontation in a populated area, and the PCs will have little choice but to try to insert themselves in the middle of it.

 

Well, that's what's come to me to this point.

[Herolover]

Re: My Major adventure involving VIPER's Serpent Lantern.

 

Thanks for the reply. If you have any suggestions or ideas, even if they are opposed to what I am thinking, please post them. When I work on this more I will try and post to this thread what I am doing.